Where Words Fail
by a-little-blonde-distraction
Summary: A Klaroline One Shot in Three Parts: Niklaus Mikaelson is one of the hottest rockstars out there, but he's none too pleased that he's being forced to tour with Caroline Forbes, an up-and-coming rockstar & her band. He's even less pleased when he learns that he's going to be filling in for her lead guitarist in tonight's performance. Rated M for Smut & Language Cover: approvesomuch
1. Part 1: I Love Rock 'n Roll

**Where Words Fail  
**_A Klaroline One Shot  
_Part 1 of 3

* * *

\m/ . \m/

"Elijah, I refuse to work with some Britney Spears rock-and-roll wannabe..." Klaus spat, throwing back the rest of the whiskey in his tumbler before pouring himself more.

"I know you're hellbent on clearing out the room's liquor supply, Niklaus, but try not to get too sloshed before you go on stage... I know you're quite capable of playing and singing no matter your level of inebriation, but those medical bills were quite hefty after you stumbled over the edge of the stage the last time..." Elijah said, not bothering to look up from his phone while he was texting or emailing whomever he was talking to while talking to his brother and client. "And she's nothing like Britney Spears... You would've done better to compare her to Cherie Curie or Deborah Harry..."

"Then that would've defeated the purpose of the reference, brother..." Klaus said after he'd gulped down more of the dark amber liquid. "The point was to reference a _talentless_ blonde..."

"How do you know she's talentless, Niklaus? You've never even heard her perform, much less spoken to her, and that's by no fault of mine. I did try to set up that meeting, but you chose to occupy yourself with another blonde... I hope she was worth what you paid, brother." Klaus smirked, remembering the blonde his brother was referencing.

"Oh she was... And it was actually her and another blonde... And their ginger friend." Klaus strolled away from the bar to grab his leather jacket that he'd tossed over the back of the couch where Elijah was sitting.

"Well you know as well as I do the danger of judging a book by it's cover. Although I had thought _this_ book's cover would be to your liking," Elijah said, looking up from his phone long enough to hold up the magazine that was on the couch beside him. It was open to a photo spread with two pictures that made Klaus raise his eyebrows a bit before he tossed his leather jacket back down and snatched it from his brother.

"This is her?" Klaus said, knowing the answer already and scanning the pictures as Elijah tried to hide his triumphant smile. "She still looks a little..."

"'Talentless'?" Elijah asked, quoting his brother's earlier remark.

"I was going to say 'pure,' but then again I always did say that pageantry and regalia was always an indication of a musician's attempt at compensating for a lack real talent..." Klaus sniffed, before crossing with his glass of whiskey and the magazine to sit in the armchair next to his brother.

He sat in it sideways with one leg dangling off the arm of the chair and the other resting on the floor. He studied the picture for a moment, taking in the blonde that was sitting on the floor against a silver amp box. Her pose casual with one booted leg pulled up in front of her on the floor and the left one straight up and pulled close to her body, her elbow resting against her knee so her gloved hand could rest lightly against her forehead.

Her golden hair was messily curled and framed her face that was tastefully done with dark, but not too dark, eye makeup and lipstick a shade darker than her creamy, pale complexion. A solid black Gibson Flying V was resting against her right shoulder with the body of the guitar straddling her right thigh over the voluminous metallic gold ruffling of the skirt of her dress. He would've been more impressed with the girl if the guitar had not had hot pink guitar strings.

"From what I've heard, Caroline's style of music and performance is not that different from yours, Niklaus..." Elijah said, picking up his phone again.

"'I'm addicted to my new record player. So recently I've been listening to Nancy Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix...'" Klaus read the quote on the page with a photo of Caroline Forbes, 'up and coming rock princess,' and looked back at Elijah with an expectant face. "I doubt that's honestly her taste in music, but rather an eclectic enough blend of different genres to make her seem more knowledgeable about music..."

"Niklaus, I'm not asking you to be her best friend and hang around listening to records with her. I'm not even asking you to perform with her, I'm _telling_ you to perform with her. Your record label made the deal with her label and you two will be touring together for the remainder of the summer..." Elijah said with a sigh, looking up and telling his brother straight the facts of the matter. Klaus groaned like a child and let his head hang off the chair in defeat.

"Fine, " he growled after a moment, sitting up and reaching for his glass that he'd put on the coffee table in front of them.

"As if you had a choice," Elijah snorted quietly. "And that was just her manager Bonnie, she texted me and asked if you'd mind filling in for Caroline's lead guitarist..."

"You said she was just my opening act!" Klaus said, the glass of whiskey pausing just as it had almost reached his lips. "Now I'm her lackey and playing guitar _for_ her?!"

"Calm down, brother, no one's asking you to be her lackey... Apparently her guitarist, one 'Katerina P,'" Elijah glanced down at his phone to quote the text message Bonnie had sent, "Got into a fight at a bar last night and sprained her wrist and the doctors say that she'll need to keep a wrist brace on for at least the next two weeks... She thought that you of all people could understand their plight."

Klaus smirked, knowing his new opening act's manager was referencing his fractured hand in 2010 when he got into a bar fight in Dublin. He was forced to cancel the rest of his tour to get a minor procedure done and recover from the injury, and the record company had not been happy to say the least.

"If you are unwilling or unable to, I could always ask Stefan if he could cover for-" Elijah started to say before the magazine with Caroline's interview was tossed in his face.

"Don't be ridiculous, brother, we both know I'm a better guitarist than Stefan, although he is one of the best..." Klaus muttered, referring to his guitarist that typically played lead when Klaus only sang lead vocals. Elijah rolled his eyes at his brother, knowing although his response was arrogant, it was true.

"So I can tell her you'll play for Caroline?" Elijah said, pushing some buttons on his phone to call Bonnie rather than text her back.

\m/ . \m/

"What do you mean 'he'll take it under consideration'?!" Caroline screeched as their tour bus pulled into the parking lot of the stadium that would soon house over one thousand people. Her manager and best friend Bonnie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Good news is it sounds like Elijah's on our side... Klaus is the one that's going to need a little persuading."

"He knows he's under contract, right?" Caroline said angrily, crossing her arms across her chest, obscuring the heart wrapped in barbed wire on her Joan Jett and the Blackhearts t-shirt.

"To have you open for him? Yes. To play for your dumbass lead guitarist when she gets into a bar fight with a random girl for making out with her boyfriend and spraining her wrist? No." The mocha skinned girl replied, her phone clicking as she opened a new text on her phone.

"Hey! That bitch was asking for it! Didn't even get angry at her boyfriend, ole What's-His-Name... No, she just decided to target all that rage and anger over her philandering boyfriend at me. Besides, a Petrova never walks away from a fight..." Katherine's voice came from the end of the bus after she lowered the TV, the antics of the Kardashian sisters and Scott Disick getting quieter in the background, so she could jump into the conversation when her name was brought up.

"At least you won the fight..." Caroline shrugged. "I do agree, that girl, what was her name? Something Gilbert? Anyway, she seemed like she had a stick shoved somewhere it desperately needed to be yanked out..." Caroline chuckled as crossed to grab a XXX Vitamin Water out of the mini fridge in the section of the bus that was their kitchen for all intents and purposes.

"Yeah well, now you're down a guitarist and either you have to have Klaus cover for Kat or his lead guitarist, Stefan Salvatore..." Caroline had taken a swig of her drink but nearly spit it out all over her manager and friend.

"Wait! Stefan was an option?!" Caroline choked out her words, "Why didn't you just ask him?!" Caroline met Stefan when she was just an aspiring singer-songwriter, slipping her demo CDs in recording producers' pockets when she wasn't playing her guitar on the street with her case open for loose change.

He was a roadie that had heard her playing in a bar one night and they had had a one night stand shortly after meeting. They quickly decided they were better as friends and Stefan promised to take a couple of her CDs and pass them out to the powers that be when he got the chance. Almost two years later, he's playing guitar and singing backup vocals for one of the industries most notorious playboy rockers, Niklaus Mikaelson, and she's the new girl on the scene, newly signed on to open for the same rocker.

The touring life was one not conducive to keeping up with friends long distance, so Caroline hadn't blamed him for losing touch with her, but if he was ever in L.A. he'd hit her up and they'd go out for dinner and drinks. He was pretty much responsible for her getting noticed, so how could she not? Without Stefan, Caroline had no doubt she'd still be playing in bars or on the street for petty change, praying she'd catch her break.

"Well I didn't know he was back playing with Klaus, I thought he was still touring with his brother, otherwise I wouldn't have even bothered asking Elijah," Bonnie said, trying to explain how it had come to this and Caroline sighed and flopped down on the couch that took up nearly the whole side of the bus, one of her legs resting on the couch and the other dangling off the side and her foot resting against the floor in her signature hot pink high top Converses.

"Huh, me too. Guess he got as tired of Damon's bullshit as the rest of us. Wait, didn't he get sent back to rehab?" Caroline said, turning her head toward Bonnie who sat on the couch opposite her.

"No, he just got out," Katherine called from the back of the bus, although the Kardashians had already reclaimed her attention.

"Again?"

"Apparently... Not that I care..." Bonnie and Caroline exchanged glances at Katherine's reply. She'd been involved with both Salvatore brothers and was in love more with Stefan than Damon, and unfortunately it was the other way around for the brothers. Even though she'd chosen Stefan over Damon, both girls knew their friend kept tabs on the elder Salvatore just as she did the younger.

"Well, I'm texting Stefan now, letting him know just in case Klaus goes all diva on us and decides not to play last minute..."

"Tell him I say hi and I'll owe him a drink."

"If Klaus punks out, the least you can offer is a bottle, Blondie," Katherine called and Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Yes, fine, I owe him a bottle... Ask him if he still likes Johnnie Walker," Caroline said to Bonnie, who nodded and kept texting away.

"What does Klaus get if he plays?" Katherine said, and Caroline could tell from her tone of voice she was trying to rile her up.

"He gets a 'thanks for not being a douchewaffle,' not a $500 bottle of whiskey, that's for damn sure..." Bonnie and Katherine sniggered as they heard the bus doors open and heard footsteps approaching and walking up the steps into the bus. They turned their attention toward the front and saw a man wearing a polo with the venue's logo on the left breast with messy brown hair and a rakish smile.

"Hello ladies, my name is Alaric, and I'll be your handler for tonight's show... Is there anything you ladies need or want that I can get for you right now?"

"I'll have a double martini, straight up, thanks gorgeous..." Katherine called from the back. Caroline chuckled at her friend's reply and shook her head when she saw the man waiting hesitantly, obviously not sure what to do.

"Hi, I'm Caroline, it's nice to meet you, Alaric..." she said, extending a hand towards the man and he gladly took it and shook it with a smile.

"Please, call me Ric," he said warmly.

"Only if you call me, Caroline..." she said with smile back, then gestured, "and this is my manager Bonnie, and Double Martini," she jerked a thumb towards the back of the bus, "is my indisposed guitarist, Kat... Please ignore her, she's hopped up on pain meds right now."

"Don't make excuses for Kat's personality..." Bonnie said and Caroline chuckled.

"And my bassist, Anna Belle, and my drummer, Lexi Branson, will be here soon, they would've been on the bus with us, but they've got friends and family in town, so they flew ahead on one of our breaks and will be meeting up soon for a soundcheck..." Alaric nodded and gestured to the front of the bus.

"Well we have dressing rooms set up for you ladies if you'd like to get ready in there, or if you'd like to stay on the bus, we can bring the hospitality food and gifts down here..."

"No that sounds great, I've been cooped up in here too long..." Caroline said, grabbing her hot pink peplum blazer and slipping her arms in and turning to the back of the bus. "What about you, Double Martini? You coming?"

"Send down a fruit basket and bottle of wine and I'm golden..." Katherine said waving her hand dismissively, her eyes never leaving the plasma screen.

"Yes to the fruit basket, no to the wine..." Caroline said to Alaric, and moving past him and walking down the bus steps.

"I heard that!"

"Don't care! Take another pill!" Caroline called back, hearing the clicking of Bonnie's heels behind her and then remembering their conversation before Alaric entered the bus. She paused and turned, seeing the man leaving the bus and walking with a little speed in his step to catch up with them.

"Oh, Ric, where's the nearest liquor store?"

"Just a few blocks over," he pointed in the direction but Caroline saw him trying to keep his air of professionalism even though he sounded slightly disapproving. "But I assure you, the stadium has provided a considerable amount of quality liquors to be at your disposal in the room..."

"Oh no, hon, I want to buy a gift for a friend," Caroline quickly cut him off, giving him an understanding look. She knew he was one of the staff people that saw a million and one rockstars come through that probably brought their own stash with them and made a spectacle of their drunkenness. Fortunately for him, she wasn't one of those kinds of rockers, at least not two and a half hours _before_ the show. After the show as another thing entirely.

"Oh, of course, well whatever you need, I'd be happy to go send someone to pick it up for you..." He said assuredly and Caroline smiled at him.

"Great, thanks!" She replied, chipper knowing she'd be seeing an old friend very soon.

\m/ . \m/

"You guys, this mic stand is a piece of shit, could someone kindly find me one that isn't?" Stefan said, looking at the roadies that were standing around, leaning against the equipment cases that had yet to make their way off stage. They suddenly snapped to attention and scurried around to try and find a better mic stand for him and he sighed and ran a hand through his messily coiffed hair and suddenly heard screeching behind him.

He turned and smiled just as Caroline ran across the stage and launched herself into his arms and luckily he caught her and wasn't knocked over by the impact of her hurling herself into him.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in..." He said, his voice muffled by her mane of blonde hair covering his face.

"Don't be silly, I left the wounded Kat on the bus..." She laughed, releasing her grip on his neck only slightly for her to turn her head and kiss his cheek and look at his face.

"Oh really? How's the She-Devil doing?"

"She's fine, but we might need to add pain med addiction to the laundry list of her charming qualities..."

"Oh, lovely..." Stefan said sarcastically, but still smiling at his blonde friend. "And how are you holding up?"

"Good! Just glad to be off the bus and stretching my legs..." She said, her arms still wrapped around his neck, so she released him and laughed when she actually got a good look at him. "Wow, some things never change, do they, Stef?"

"Hey, I like this cut and I'm sticking to it!" Stefan said defensively touching his hair and Caroline laughed even harder.

"No, stupid, I was talking about this," She said as she tugged on his white t-shirt he was wearing and he knocked her hands away quickly, as if he were afraid she'd stretch the fabric. "Jon's mullet is a little outdated there, Stef."

"This is a classic! Besides, Lexi got it for me, and since I knew you'd all be here, I word it especially for you all," he said, smoothing his hands over Jon Bon Jovi's face down the front of his shirt.

"Awww, Stefan, ever the sentimentalist."

"Yeah yeah, keep making fun and we'll see how much more sentiment I have for you," Stefan said, wrapping an arm around her neck to rub his fist on her head, teasing her. Caroline laughed, fighting him off and once she was freed, a throat cleared behind her.

"Excuse me, will you stop bogarting the Salvatore please, Care?" Bonnie said, her hands on her hips and a faux-angry expression on her face. Caroline stepped to the side and held up her hands defensively as she made a face and Bonnie and Stefan smiled and embraced.

"Where's everyone else?" Stefan asked and no sooner had the words left his mouth, he was suddenly being surprised tackled from behind by two girls, one blonde and the other with raven hair. They laughed as Lexi grabbed Stefan's arms and pinned them behind his back, straddling him and called to Anna, "Quick! I've got his arms!" Anna whipped out a can of mousse and started shaking it. Stefan hadn't been struggling but when he heard the can shaking, he immediately tried to do his best to get up.

"Okay guys, this isn't funny..."

"Au contraire, mon ami," Anna started, squeezing the trigger and white foam appearing in her hand, "It's going to be hilarious..."

"I'm serious guys, put the mousse down," Stefan said, but when Anna simply put the can down on the floor beside her and started rubbing her hands together, he started to shout, "I SAID PUT IT DOWN!"

"Okay, 'down' you say? Okay!" Anna said with a wicked grin and her hands quickly rooted themselves in Stefan's brown locks. He immediately began thrashing as if Anna were trying to rub battery acid in his hair and he kept shouting but the girls just laughed and Caroline and Bonnie even got out their cellphones and started taking pictures and video. Anna mussed his hair and Stefan turned his head and his eyes grew wide with horror as he saw Anna reach and pull a battery operated hair dryer from her back pocket.

"No. No! NOOOO!" Stefan screamed in vain as Anna clicked the dryer on and immediately began blasting Stefan's newly moussed head. Caroline and Bonnie were in stitches laughing at this point and Lexi held onto Stefan long enough for the mousse to dry and set and then she and Anna released him, rolling on the floor laughing themselves. Stefan brought his hands up in horror and did his best flatten his crazy hair with his hands, but it was no use.

"You guys are a bunch of dicks!" He yelled, half in anger and half in disgust, and ran past them, no doubt to a bathroom to stick his head under a faucet, which was the only way he'd have a chance at fixing his hair.

"Actually, 'pussies' would be more accurate, you know since we're all girls!" Lexi managed to call after him and it sent the girls and the other techs and roadies that were in the space to start laughing uproariously again.

"Oh my god, you guys. That was awesome!" Caroline finally said once she could breathe again, high-fiving her bassist and drummer. "When did you guys come up with that plan?"

"About an hour ago," Anna said, "We were talking about the time that we found Lexi's blow dryer in Stefan's bathroom and he said 'she must have left it there.' God, he's such a pansy!" She said and they started laughing again.

"Okay guys, let's get set up so when he gets back we can just start the sound check. Who knows how long we'll convince him to stay now...and I don't think we can count on Mr. Mikaelson showing up if Stefan's here." Bonnie said, becoming all business again and the girls began setting up their instruments and things with the roadies to start practicing and testing sound levels.

\m/ . \m/

Klaus closed his hotel room door behind him and strode to the elevator, throwing back the contents of the tiny bottle he'd swiped from mini bar and chucking it in a nearby trash can before punching the down button. He got in the elevator, hit the lobby button and tucked his black leather jacket into the space between the handle and the wall to his side so he could slip his dark grey vest on. Just as he reached for his jacket, he felt his phone vibrating in his back pocket. He pulled it out and rolled his eyes as he saw the name on the screen.

"Hello, mummy, don't worry, I'm leaving now..." He said wryly, holding his phone to his ear with one shoulder so he could slip his arm into one jacket sleeve before switching his phone to the other ear so he could put his arm in the other sleeve.

"Good, I was just going to tell you that if you're playing for Caroline's opening then you'd have to come down here now," Elijah replied, ignoring Klaus's sarcastic endearment. He'd left to go down to the stadium to meet with Bonnie to go over logistics, giving time for Klaus to sleep off some of the bourbon.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm playing..." He said irritably, as if he wondered why Elijah had suggested otherwise.

"Well you weren't there for soundcheck earlier, so-"

"What does that matter? Bonnie sent you her set list, it's half her songs, which are annoyingly easy chords for lead guitar and the other half are songs I know backwards and forwards."

"Fine, well there's a car waiting for you downstairs, we'll see you in 25 minutes, then."

"Good," Klaus said, not bothering to say good-bye and hanging up his phone and slipping it into his jacket pocket as he got off the elevator and strode through the lobby. He slipped his shades on even though it wasn't bright outside since he knew there'd be at least a few photographers waiting and he wasn't wrong.

Soon he was being plagued by a handful of photographers and reporters, all shouting and trying to ask him questions or get his attention, and the driver was already ready at the door of the black town car and opened it so that he was easily out of the hotel and in the car within a matter of seconds.

As the car made it's way to the stadium, his phone vibrated again and he groaned, thinking it'd be another text from his nanny, Elijah. Instead his lips curled into a devilish smile as he saw a name on the screen that he hadn't seen since the last time he was in town.

_Hey, heard you're in town for a concert. Anytime for some fun later? -H_

He opened the text and quickly replied back.

_Sounds lovely, sweetheart. I'll let you know later. Give me time to shake my nanny so I can have you all to myself._

A few moments later, he had a reply.

_I'll be waiting, but don't make me wait too long. I'm a very busy girl and if you're not up for some fun, there are a bunch of guys who are... -H_

He smirked and quickly typed back:

_Of course, although I doubt any of those blokes would have the stamina to break my record for induced orgasms in one round._

When he didn't get a snarky reply back, he smiled, knowing he'd put her in her place. Yes, she was one of his favorite escorts to hook up with when he was in town, but there were plenty of girls where she came from. Besides, the odds of him finding some groupie or fan was much more likely than her finding a lover as good as him, and she knew that. He was the alpha male, and there was no use denying it.

Soon the car was pulling up to the back entrance of the stadium for him to avoid the throngs of people who were already lining up to get inside for the concert. The driver opened the door for him and he slipped out, nodding to the stadium personnel that greeted him politely, and hurried in the door that a security guard had opened for him.

He was backstage in no time and Elijah was at his side, giving him information about the band and ushering him to the roadies that were unpacking his guitars.

"Give me the ES-355," he called to one of the roadies, who nodded and immediately went and sorted through Klaus's Gibsons looking for the one he'd specified.

"Caroline's in her dressing room getting ready, but her other band members are here if you want to warm up and go over the set list with them."

"Fine, fine," Klaus said distractedly, tossing his leather jacket to Elijah, who gave him an irritated look before handing it to one of his assistants. Klaus took the Gibson from the roadie who held it with reverence, and strode to the stage. He saw two girls, one with long jet black hair and a bass strung across her front talking to a blonde with her hair piled into a messy bun on the top of her head, sitting behind a drum kit. There was a third girl with mocha skin and dark brown hair, dressed professionally, and Klaus knew who she was before Elijah introduced her.

"Bonnie, this is my brother, Klaus. Niklaus, this is Bonnie B, Caroline's manager," Elijah said, gesturing to the girl, who extended a hand to him with a polite smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, both of which reflected a look of annoyance and contempt that Klaus recognized all too well.

"Nice to meet you, Klaus," Bonnie said, even though Klaus really didn't think she meant it, "We weren't expecting you to get here until much later." Obviously when she said 'we' she wasn't referring to herself and his brother, and he knew all too well whom she must be referring to when she said the word.

"Well then my brother should've done a better job at convincing you. He knows how I can't resist a pretty blonde."

Elijah chuckled, trying to ease the tension that was already mounting and Klaus smirked as he watched Bonnie do her best to keep her polite smile plastered on, even though he could swear he heard her teeth grinding.

"How charming," Bonnie muttered before turning and walking towards the stage, no doubt expecting Klaus and Elijah to follow, "I'll introduce you to the girls."

Once introductions were over, Klaus ran through each song once and had to admit, the girls were better than he'd expected. Anna was a great bassist that was so in it and could riff better than his own bassist, Chris; and Lexi was the constant and consistent heartbeat of the entire performance on drums. He complimented them and they accepted, seeming to grasp the sincerity in his tone and words and said that they were happy to play with him if Kat and Stefan weren't able.

"Speaking of Stefan, where is the nancy boy?" He asked and was taken off guard by the raucous laughter he was met with from both girls.

"Probably in his bathroom shaking and trembling," Lexi said.

"If he's not showering for the seventeenth time," Anna added before whipping out her cell and flipping through her pictures before showing him the screen. He took her phone and laughed as he scrolled through the pictures they took earlier.

"Jesus," he laughed, "I hope he's not too traumatized to play for me later..."

"Oh don't worry, even if he is, Caroline can cover for him," Anna assured him, chuckling as she took her phone back. Klaus chuckled along with them and nodded, remembering how he'd seen on the list that Caroline would be on guitar for certain songs and remembering her picture in the magazine Elijah had shown him earlier.

"So I take it the Flying V is really hers then?" He asked and the girls nodded, and Lexi pointed to it side stage with one of her drumsticks.

"Caroline never goes anywhere without it. It's her pride and joy."

Klaus glanced over and saw the same solid black Gibson guitar Caroline had been photographed with and thought that the hot pink guitar strings weren't as bad as they'd seemed to him originally in the photo. Besides, Gibson was his favorite guitar manufacturer, so anyone that loved their Flying V as much as Caroline seemed to love hers was alright in his book. Maybe this whole arrangement wouldn't be as bad as Klaus had thought.

\m/ . \m/

Soon they were waiting backstage as the stadium filled with people and he saw that Anna and Lexi were hunched around Anna's phone, no doubt going through the pictures of their attack on Stefan earlier that day and debating which pictures to tweet and post to the band's Facebook page. He'd told them he'd retweet any pictures that they posted, and after their run through and that comment, he saw he'd won them over despite the fact he'd missed the soundcheck and shown up less than an hour before they were supposed to open.

The only person that wasn't there was the girl he was doing the favor for, but Bonnie had said she was still getting prepped and was warming up vocally and she'd come on stage during the first few bars of the song.

He would do the same, but he knew that they didn't need him to do backup vocals with Anna and their back up singers there and that they'd take a 10 minute break before he and his band was supposed to perform, so he decided he'd just warm up then.

Before they knew it, they were dimming the audience lights to signal to the audience that the show was about to start. The crowd started to cheer and soon all the lights were out, save for the scattered lights of cellphones, cameras, and various glow sticks and glow stick jewelry across the crowd. Once they were completely in a blackout, Klaus moved into position on stage with Anna, Lexi and the back up singers.

Klaus glanced around, his eyes adjusting to the dark and murmured that he was ready. Once he heard everyone murmur they were ready loud enough for him to hear, he heard the clicking of Lexi tapping her guitar sticks together and call loudly, "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX-" and then Klaus heard Lexi's opening counts of drumming on "seven and eight" and once she was done he and Anna immediately hit their opening notes and the crowd went wild.

They played the opening notes of the familiar tune, and they all knew they were repeating the same measures until Caroline entered. They played for a bit in the blackout, getting the audience more and more riled up until the lights came up instantly the second they began to repeat again, and the audience went wild. Then there was a delayed reaction before even more high pitched screams were heard, no doubt as many girls in the audience saw that Klaus was on lead guitar. He glanced up only once to give them a devilish smirk and he kept playing.

He got so into the notes he was playing, happy that of the songs that were in Caroline's set list, he not only knew how to play them, but they were songs that he loved. This one in particular lent itself for a great guitar solo midway through the song, and the girls had told him Caroline knew that he'd riff for a bit, however long he wanted, and once he gave her a cue, she'd pick up with the correct verse. He hadn't been worried about joining them as last minute as he had because he was a professional, and this was all he knew; it was his life's work. The true test would be if Caroline wouldn't be thrown off by having him as a replacement, having practiced with Stefan earlier.

He was only pulled from the music as he heard a new wave of screams coming from the house right portion of the audience and he glanced up to see a mane of blonde hair making its way down the aisle. He couldn't make her out completely, just her hair which was wild and crimped and full of volume, and he had to give her credit for her entertaining and unexpected entrance from the audience.

He realized she was greeting the crowd and that's what was taking her so long to get up to the stage, and he and the band continued to play the same opening measures again. They began repeating the measures again and again, and he eventually turned to shoot a disbelieving look at Anna, who was smirking, and he mouthed, "Are you serious?" and she merely shrugged and rolled her eyes as they kept playing.

The whole crowd was now in a frenzy, Caroline no doubt finally making her way up the steps to the stage, and Klaus turned back to see the blonde bombshell strutting to the vacant microphone to his left, directly center stage.

Luckily they were at the top of a new repeating of the measures and she was waiting for a new one to start, because Klaus was completely awestruck, and he didn't catch himself staring and not playing along until Anna called to him and snapped him out of it.

She was absolutely breathtaking. But even that was an understatement; she was a fucking knockout.

She was wearing a loose black, sleeveless blouse-like tank top with studding that decorated the neckline and front and it separated into three strips in the back that connected the top neckline to the bottom of the shirt and exposed the smooth, flawless pale skin of her back. She had on what he's sure his little sister would deem 'booty shorts,' but they were nothing less than black boyfriend brief underwear to Klaus, and she wore them over a pair of black fishnets that covered her long, glorious legs. A pair of two or three inch black ankle boots with similar lined studs, like the ones on her shirt, were on her feet and a pair of black lace gloves were on her hands and covered them to her wrists. A black birdcage veil was attached to her mane of hair and obscured the upper half of her face down to her nose, and her bright red lips topped off her entire ensemble.

Anna had called to him and snapped him out of his reverie, and he heard where they were and hit the guitar riff with gusto and immediately after Caroline started to sing, pointing out to the audience.

"_**I saw him dancin' there by the record machine **_

_**I knew he must've been about seventeen **_

_**The beat was goin' strong **_

_**Playin' my favorite song **_

_**An' I could tell it wouldn't be long **_

_**Till he was with me,"**_

The backup girls and Anna joined her and sang, _"__**Yeah me." **_

And Caroline kept singing with the chorus fast approaching.

"_**And I could tell it wouldn't be long **_

_**Till he was with me, yeah me, singin'" **_

The backup girls and Anna and the crowd joined in with Caroline for the chorus.

"_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come and take your time and dance with me!"**_

Klaus played along and watched with fascination as Caroline performed, even though she was mostly just swaying and rocking out in time with the music, until she ripped the microphone out of the stand during the beat of music, and she suddenly spun in place and fell to the ground on her knees and laid down and arched her back as she called out, "_**Wow!**_**" **with so much gusto and showmanship, it would've made Joan Jett proud.

She quickly picked up the second verse and her hand slid tantalizingly down her curves, continuing from where she was, writhing on the floor as if she were remembering past lovers as she sang.

_**He smiled so I got up and asked for his name **_

'_**That don't matter, he said, ''Cause it's all the same'**_

Klaus nearly stopped breathing as he watched the sexy blonde slowly stood and took hold of the mic stand with her left hand and proceeded to grind provocatively against it while she sang into the mic in her right hand. She slowly and enticingly rolled her body against the piece of metal and Klaus couldn't help the growl that escaped his throat as she began to sing the next verse.

_**Said, 'Can I take you home, where we can be alone?'**_

He couldn't stop himself from watching her lithe figure move, nor could he help himself from staring at her backside that was barely covered with the small piece of tight, stretchy fabric. The combination of her outfit, her movements and her sultry, almost raspy and bluesy voice was absolutely maddening and Klaus found himself very grateful for the placement of his Gibson in front of his body.

_**An' next we were movin' on **_

_**He was with me, yeah me **_

Her provocative movements only stopped for her to rock out to Lexi's drumming and his guitar and he found himself playing more passionately, hoping that his playing would bring more of that scintillating movement from her body as they approached the second chorus and his guitar solo which immediately followed.

_**Next we were movin' on **_

_**He was with me, yeah me, singin' **_

The audience, the back up singers, and Anna joined in with Caroline for the chorus again as she strutted around the stage, mostly to their left where the backup singers were, and Klaus found himself crossing to center stage to be closer to her.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

Caroline turned back and saw that Klaus had crossed closer to her and she quirked an eyebrow and gave him a seductive smile and sauntered casually back to him, and took the microphone stand in her left hand again and faced him as she sang with everyone.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time an' dance with me!**_

He looked at her and saw how amped up she was and it only turned him on more and made him more anxious to start riffing his guitar, one of the few ways he knew to show off his prowess, to show her his alpha that came out when he was lost in the music. They were inches apart and she watched him until she suddenly flung her torso back, practically bending her entire body in half and wailed, "_**Wow!**_**"**

It caused her shirt to rise slightly and gave Klaus a glimpse of her lower abdomen and Klaus nearly growled again, imagining their bodies pressed against each other instead of inches apart and her throwing her head back like that in the middle of passion.

The motion also forced his attention up to her breasts, which were all but thrust in his face and he had to resist the urge to throw his beloved Gibson to the side and pull her to him and take her right there in the middle of the stage, not caring it would be in front of the band members, his brother, her manager, and thousands of people that filled the stadium.

Instead he took all the passion and sexual energy that was coursing through him, took a single step away, and channeled all of it into his playing and he began to riff and play his guitar solo. It was a little varied from the typical solo performance, but his eyes slid shut and played without thinking of the notes. Instead, he thought of Caroline's lithe body and how each movement sent him into a sexual frenzy and somehow, like they always did, his fingers turned his feelings and thoughts into music as he caressed his guitar like a lover; how he'd caress and play upon Caroline's body if he had the chance.

He could hear himself winding down in the solo, knowing Caroline would start singing again, and his eyes snapped open as he felt something sliding across his chest from left to right. He gasped and bit back a moan as he looked down realized it was Caroline's hand languidly dragging across his chest as she moved around him.

She paused when she was behind him and, even though he wanted to turn and look and see if there was the same fire blazing in her eyes that he knew was in his, he stood where he was and didn't move.

He felt her press her back to his and her head rest against his shoulder blade, with him facing stage left and her stage right, and he wasn't able to bite back his moan this time and it ripped out of his throat. He began to play the notes she would be singing within the song and she took notice of his cue and began to sing again and roll her body in time with the music, her back still pressed to his.

_**Said can I take you home where we can be alone**_

He groaned again, his eyes sliding shut as he felt her body against his and moving along with the music and he could imagine her writhing beneath him in a similar manner, and he made sure his trusty Gibson, which he'd decided to not throw across the stage, kept his inner battle a secret. Mercifully he wasn't expected to play anything in this portion so he stood and gathered his thoughts and senses as Caroline continued singing.

_**Next we were movin' on **_

_**He was with me, yeah me,**_

Luckily for Klaus, that was the moment Caroline decided to move around and slink back to center stage, but she still turned to face him and sang.

_**An' we'll be movin' on **_

_**An' singin' that same old song **_

_**Yeah with me, singin' **_

Caroline stopped singing and held her hand with the mic out to the audience and her free hand to her ear as if she expected them to sing, and they didn't disappoint her and they all shouted the lyrics to her.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time an' dance with me **_

Caroline had begun to gesture clapping largely with her hands around 'dime', and the back up singers and audience mimicked her as they all sang. She glanced over at Klaus and seeing his heated stare, she grinned devilishly and took hold of her empty mic stand and dragged it over to him and held tight to it as she began to thrash and head bang during 'so come an' take your time an' dance with me' in time with the music.

_So that's how it is? _He thought to himself and he returned the smile. _Alright, two can play at that game, love. _He listened for his moment and after when Lexi started to wind up the drumming again and he jumped back in, his left hand gliding down the neck of his guitar and he began playing his guitar solo again amongst the familiar tune of the song.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time an' dance with-**_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time an' dance with-**_

Caroline had started singing the chorus along with the backup girls and audience, but when Klaus had launched back into playing, her head had snapped back up and he glanced up and saw her watching him play with rapt attention. He felt his groin tighten as he saw what he would've sworn was..._arousal_ in her eyes. He smirked at her wickedly and played even more passionately, and she returned his wicked smile before starting to headbang again and writhe and roll her body again, caressing her curves with her free hand as the song started to come to a close.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time an' dance with-**_

He heard Lexi subtly cuing them that it would be the last chorus, and suddenly Caroline began to close the distance between the two of them.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So put another dime in the jukebox, baby **_

Caroline moved the mic to her left hand and danced and writhed closer to Klaus, her right hand going up and tangling in her blonde mane of hair, and he did his best to stay focused and continued to play.

_**I love rock n' roll **_

_**So come an' take your time...**_

Caroline suddenly grabbed hold of the neck of Klaus's guitar and whipped it down, the strap across Klaus's body keeping it from falling and merely turning so that it was now against his back with the neck pointing down. She moved his guitar aside and grabbed the right side of his vest and pulled him to her, her right hand wrapping around the back of his neck as her left leg hitched around his waist as she sang _**...an' dance with me!**_

Instinctually, Klaus's one hand reached up to take a hold to her arm as it held his neck and his other went to her leg and kept it pressed to him.

The crowd went wild and Klaus and Caroline were frozen center stage, wrapped up in each other, their faces so close that their noses actually touched and her warmth between her legs was sinfully pressed to his ever raging hard on.

Even though thousands of people were screaming, the only thing that Klaus heard was Caroline's rapid breathing that matched his own.

Yes, they'd both given physically exerting performances just then, but there was something else that was causing them to gasp for air, both trying to catch their breath. There was an electricity between them and Klaus could feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest as he stared down into Caroline's face, his eyes half-lidded just like hers. He took an inventory of everything he was feeling and what he observed from her and he saw the recognition hit her eye the same time he realized it:

They'd both holding each other and gasping and getting a grip on their senses after having what could only be described as the performance equivalent of an orgasm in the middle of the stage.

Once Caroline had regained control of her breathing, she brought her leg down and stepped away from him and, without her body there to hide the evidence of his arousal, Klaus turned his back to the audience and took the opportunity to grab one of the water bottles that the crew had left on tables upstage against the platforms where Lexi and her drum kit were so she could be seen while they played on the normal level of the stage.

He took a deep breath before taking a gigantic gulp of water and immediately thinking of all the normal things he thought of to get rid of a hard on: mucus, crying babies, that one time he'd accidentally walked in on Mikael and Esther, Betty White. It was one of the most relentless hard ons he'd ever been misfortuned to have in public, but Mikael and Esther together and Betty White finally put him over the edge and he could feel his body quickly simmer down after a while as he heard Caroline addressing the crowd.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" He heard the blonde call into the microphone and the crowd went even more crazy if that was possible. Even though she was speaking into a mic, the volume from the audience was so great that she still had to shout over them.

"My name is Caroline Forbes, and we are 'Caroline and the Vamps'!" The crowd went wild again and Klaus turned back and couldn't help but smile wickedly as Caroline gave him a glorious view of her ass as she leaned down to bow to the audience. When she righted herself, she turned to look at him and seeing he was facing forward she gestured with her hand towards him as she turned and spoke to the audience again.

"I'd like to thank our main act's lead singer, Klaus Mikaelson, for stepping in when our band member, Kat, was unable to play tonight." The crowd went wild again for the star of the headlining act of the night and Klaus smiled and waved to the audience, blowing a kiss or two here and there.

"I mean, Kat and I normally grind against each other during that song, but we can forgive him," she started, and a portion of the audience chuckled at her frankness about her sensual performance. "I mean, come on, how fucking hot was that solo, guys? Am I right?" Her question was met with more high pitched screaming and Klaus blushed and smiled knowingly, both from Caroline's assertion and the crowd's obvious approval of his performance.

It was a matter of seconds before the crowd suddenly began to launch things on stage, mostly flowers and stuffed animals, but Klaus chuckled when he saw some things he typically didn't see until midway through his band's performance: panties.

The underwear usually made it's way to the stage in the middle of his set he did his Chris Cornell cover of "Billie Jean," driving the female portion audience to tears and throwing their underwear on the stage. And it was only Caroline's opening number; obviously the audience had been just as aroused as they were too.

Caroline had turned and gotten a drink of water for herself, taking off her birdcage veil, after she'd made her comment about Klaus's solo, so she was turning back to the audience and wiping sweat from her brow. She was frozen where she stood as she took in the stage in front of her, littered with an assortment of ladies' underwear and she finally turned bright red and placed her hand right over the middle of her face as she obviously tried to contain her laughter and embarrassment.

The crowd fed off of her reaction and cheered even louder, and some even catcalled and whistled. It made Klaus chuckle and finally Caroline lowered her hand and curtsied to the audience before surveying the panties in front of her. She stooped down and picked up a seemingly clean pair, pinching the edges between her fingertips, and she carefully placed the microphone back in the stand and held the panties up for the audience to see.

"I really like these. Someone here knows I have a thing for _polka dots_," she said conspiratorially into the microphone, singing 'polka dots,' and Klaus and the audience laughed along with her and her band.

"I'll save these for later...AND I'LL BE SURE TO WASH THEM!" The audience laughed again with her as she turned to go and toss them on the edge of Lexi's platform.

She paused though since she turned and saw Klaus looking at her with a knowing smirk, and she took a few steps back to the microphone and leaned in and added quickly before moving again.

"Go on! Pick your favorite pair, Klaus! I know you're much more used to women throwing their panties at you than I am, but I'm sure that there's a pair that will fit you!" He squinted his eyes at her as the audience laughed uproariously again and she quirked an eyebrow at him with a saucy smirk before turning and prancing upstage to put the polka dotted pair she had down.

He decided to turn the panty comment in his favor and so he turned back to survey the array of lingerie in front of him. His hands were pressed together in a praying position to his lips as if he were considering every pair, and he was pretending that he didn't hear the girls all screaming and shouting the location of their underwear over top of one another and hoping he'd select theirs.

He finally stooped down and picked up a silky pair of solid red panties, edged with red lace and the crowd went wild and he stood up and held them up for the audience to see, waggling his eyebrows and mouthing his thanks before holding them up just to stick them in his back pocket in a very showy fashion. He turned and saw that Caroline had seen the whole thing and was looking at him both in disgust and impressed that he'd turned her panty selecting comment around so it wasn't against him.

He smirked at her impishly before crossing back to the mic stand nearest him that he'd left untouched throughout the whole song, and brought the mic close to his lips.

"They are lovely, although I'd much prefer the pair you're wearing, love," he said, trying to match her conspiratorial tone from earlier, and the audience laughed and he could hear the men in the audience start to cheer him on.

Caroline squinted her eyes right back at him, not moving from where she was upstage near Lexi's drum platform, and pursed her lips. Klaus smirked evilly at her as the male audience members continued catcalling and whistling. Caroline suddenly smirked seductively and brought the mic slowly up to her lips again.

"I'm not wearing any."

The smirk on Klaus's face fell instantly and the audience lost complete control and he heard every male voice roar in response to Caroline's salacious declaration, and no one had any reason to doubt what she was saying was the God's honest truth. Caroline quirked an eyebrow in triumph and raised her hands and turned slowly, modeling the briefs for Klaus and everyone else.

Her bandmates laughed and clapped along with the audience, who was whistling and going even crazier than before and Klaus's gaze slid down to the tiny shorts she was wearing over her fishnets and visibly gulped. She'd turned and stopped, pointing her butt in his direction and leaned down and popped it out as much as she could and Klaus felt his jaw go slack, realizing that there was no visible line of any panties or thong; she was being totally and completely truthful.

He found himself feeling very hot and began wiping his brow as more sweat appeared on it than ever before and Caroline turned and gave him a villainous smile before turning back to the audience and shrugging shamelessly. She slowly sauntered up to her mic stand center stage and casually clicked the mic back into the stand as she spoke.

"On that note, I think it's as good a time as ever to continue the set with our next song, which now seems even more wildly and inappropriately appropriate," she said. "It's a song by the same band, I think you all know it." Klaus immediately thought and felt his fists clench as he realized what she was talking about and took deep breaths, trying to keep his hormones and senses from going completely haywire again.

Caroline turned and took her Gibson Flying V from a crew member and thanked them, slipping the strap over her head and letting it rest comfortably in front of her. She took out the pick wedged between the hot pink strings and neck of the solid black guitar and plugged her pride and joy up to a nearby amp and looked at Lexi and nodded. The blonde behind the drums nodded back at her friend with a smile and began tapping out the infectious beat of the song.

The crowd began to cheer tamely until Caroline looked and nodded at Anna before turning to look at Klaus as they began the first notes of the recognizable guitar intro and the crowd went wild again. Klaus watched her handle her guitar with as much power and command as every legendary guitarist he'd ever seen, if not more, and felt himself getting aroused all over again. Caroline wasn't some 'Britney Spears rock-and-roll wannabe' and she wasn't some newcomer trying to impress him to get in with his band or get in on his success.

No, she was none of those things. With the way she carried herself and the way she performed and the command and power she derived from her confident sexuality, Klaus knew right in that moment:

If he was the alpha male, Caroline was the alpha female.

The crowd kept screaming wildly and Caroline quickly pacified them and began singing, and Klaus did his best to play guitar alongside Caroline as she began to wail beautifully into the microphone.

**We've been here too long **

**Tryin' to get along **

**Pretendin' that you're oh so shy **

She turned back to look at Klaus and quirked her eyebrow as she smiled knowingly, her body rolling gently even with the guitar across her front.

**I'm a natural ma'am **

**Doin' all I can **

**My temperature is runnin' high **

**Cry at night **

**No one in sight **

**An' we got so much to share **

**Talking's fine **

**If you got the time **

**But I ain't got the time to spare **

**Yeah **

Caroline turned back to the audience, pausing a moment from playing and pointed her right hand, still holding her pick which was appropriately colored hot pink, up at the audience as she sang.

**Do you wanna touch? **

Then as the audience and her band replied, **Yeah! **Caroline grabbed the hem of her tank top and pulled her shirt up, flashing the audience. Klaus felt his hands slip from his guitar as he gawked, but all Caroline was giving everyone was a glimpse of her black bra that she wore underneath her shirt with her guitar hanging low below her waist. It was a genius move, because she wasn't wearing panties, so why would anyone think she was wearing a bra? Especially when the back of her shirt was so exposed and open and dipped so low, suggesting she probably wasn't wearing one?

But she bore her bra proudly to the audience on each '**Yeah!' **showing it off, and as Caroline continued singing and flashing the audience, Klaus realized what it was; Klaus realized it was one of the sneaky bras that he'd seen before, just the cups in the front, held to the sides of her body with two small pieces of sticky strips so that her back would remain bare.

**Do you wanna touch (Yeah) **

**Do you wanna touch me there, where **

**Do you wanna touch (Yeah) **

**Do you wanna touch (Yeah) **

Caroline released the hem of her shirt, since she only pulled it up for the **'Yeahs'** and took hold of her guitar again and continued playing and her face twisted into one experiencing pure and exquisite pleasure as she kept singing.

**Do you wanna touch me there, where **

**There, yeah **

The audience and Caroline's band members picked up the repeated lines and Klaus tried to pick back up with them, but was mesmerized by Caroline's guitar playing.

**Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah **

**Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah **

As the crowd and her band sang, Caroline had stepped away from her mic stand and essentially curled herself around her guitar and let loose whatever passion and emotion had been mounting while she'd just been singing on those hot pink strings of hers. Klaus watched with rapt fascination as she played passionately and vigorously in the two counts of sixteen that the "**oh yeahs**" allowed her.

Right away he knew: how he was watching her play in this moment was exactly how she'd been watching him during his solo when she had been guitarless. He had never met a woman that aroused him with the mere artistry and skill of her performance as much as she did with her appearance, and Caroline Forbes was starting to make him question everything he knew about the world, about music, about art and about himself.

She glanced back up at him as she finished her solo and gave him a wink and he felt himself gape a little. That saucy minx, that little sex kitten; she knew exactly what she was doing to him! Her wink was quick and subtle and she turned back to the audience quickly to begin the second verse.

Klaus was starting to regret volunteering to cover for Kat. He had no idea how he was going to make it through Caroline's entire opening act.

\m/ . \m/

"I just wanted to make a toast," Elijah said, raising his champagne glass up to the group. The group was in the tiny yet comfortable green room of the stadium, and the group consisted of just Caroline, Klaus, each of their bands, Elijah and Bonnie and all of their assistants. Each band's roadies were busy packing up everything to move out since they had another performance the next night; but Elijah had saved a bottle of Dom Perignon for them to have after the work was complete.

"To bringing together two powerhouse performers," he said with a respectful nod to both Caroline and Klaus. "With two top notch bands," he adds, gesturing around with his glass to all the musicians, including Kat who had peeled herself away from Kourtney and Scott's drama even if only for a glass of champagne, "And putting on a hell of a show."

Everyone murmured their cheers and clinked glasses. Klaus toasted with the people closest to him, but couldn't tear his eyes from the blonde a few feet to his right as they sipped their bubbly. He was trying to catch her eye, but she was too distracted, watching her brunette friend down her glass of champagne; even he had to admit, for a woman who was taking pain meds, she was probably drinking her champagne a little too fast. He saw her suddenly make a beeline for her friend, who was chatting up his brother, and he stepped towards her but was intercepted by his best friend and guitarist.

"So what's the deal with you and Caroline?" Stefan said firmly, but quiet enough for only Klaus to hear him. His words made Klaus halt in his tracks, and he looked at Stefan disbelievingly.

"Honestly, Stefan? You're honestly asking me that, mate? She's my opening act and a sensational performer. I admire her technique. It's nothing more," he said, trying to step past Stefan, who obsequiously stepped in front of him again, refusing to let him pass.

"You know, I thought you might say that," Stefan started, a smug look on his face, "and I'll tell you how I knew you'd say that. Because that's what you always do, Klaus: you brush people off or write them off even though you can't stand when people do that to you. It's one of your deepest, darkest insecurities; which is probably the reason that you do it to other people, so you do it to them before they do it to you..."

Klaus stood silently glaring at his friend, anger, hurt and defensiveness all swirling together in his expression, but even after a few seconds, he had no response for his friend's allegation. And even though he'd been smug only seconds ago, Stefan only looked at Klaus with understanding eyes.

"Caroline is one of my best friends. I know her as well as I know myself. And you know what? She may not have always been this strong and confident, but she is now; and she's probably the strongest and most self-respecting person I know, Klaus."

"What's your point, Stefan?" Klaus all but spat through gritted teeth, getting more and more pissed with his friend's pontificating.

"I'm not saying you two can't be together. For one, you're both adults and I'm not your parent nor am I in charge of either of your lives. Second, I respect and care about you both too much to tell you that," Stefan began to clarify, "Thirdly, because I'm sure the universe wouldn't allow me to keep you two apart even if I tried..."

"Oh, Stefan...ever the sentimentalist," Klaus said wryly with a smirk and Stefan's eyes widened a bit before chuckling at Klaus's remark.

"Yeah well, you two are more alike than you know." Klaus quirked an eyebrow questioningly at his friend before the young man continued.

"Besides, we all saw how you two were with each other tonight."

"What are you talking about?" Klaus said, scoffing, "She was playing up the sexual energy of the song, like the talented performer she is." He turned to walk away, but once again Stefan's words made him stop in his tracks.

"You know that I and a select few know you never rehearsed any of that opening with Caroline, since I myself was there to do the soundcheck. There's photo evidence of that all over Twitter and Facebook and who knows whatever other corners of the internet," Stefan started and when Klaus stopped walking, Stefan continued. "And Caroline was getting ready when you got there before the show, so you only practiced with Anna and Lexi." Still Klaus was silent, so Stefan took his silence as the opportunity to tell him straight.

"To any unknowing onlooker, it'd seem like you and Caroline had rehearsed that whole thing, the way you just..._responded_ to each other so effortlessly. But I know better. And the bands and Elijah and Bonnie, we all know better than that." Stefan watched as his friend clenched and unclenched his hands, but since he was still silent, he knew he'd gotten through to him. Suddenly Klaus turned to Stefan with a very pointed expression, but suddenly Lexi appeared by side them and took hold of Stefan's arm.

"Hey, Steffy, come here a second, I need you real fast."

"WHYWHATFOR?" Stefan's reply came out louder and faster than he'd probably intended, blurring his two separate questions together into one loud word that cause everyone to turn and glance at them. Klaus glanced over his friend and took in his expression and noted a certain fear in his eyes and in his tone and he did his best not to double over with laughter.

"Don't worry, mate," he said reassuringly, clapping his friend on the shoulder and gesturing to Anna, "I had her and the other hair assailant over there patted down before the toast. They're free of any hair product weaponry, I swear."

Lexi burst out laughing when she realized what was making Stefan so antsy and grabbed onto him tighter.

"He's right; I come with no concealed gel, mousse or hairspray, and all my combs and hair dryers are safely tucked away in my luggage. Come on," she said, tugging Stefan away from Klaus, and he merely managed to scowl at him and shake his head while Klaus waved back at him mockingly.

As he watched his friend get dragged away by the relentless blonde, his mind wandered back to the blonde that had been the object of his attention and desires since she strutted up the stage to her microphone earlier. He also got to thinking about Stefan's comment about how he and Caroline were "responding to each other" on stage earlier. He'd also described as seeming "effortless," and Klaus couldn't help but agree with his friend. Never in his life had he had such effortless and natural chemistry with anyone on stage...or off he realized.

His thoughts were wandering back to her and then almost as a 'sign from the universe,' as Stefan would call it, the small crowd parted and revealed Bonnie turning and suddenly leaving Caroline by herself. The moment presented itself, and Klaus wasn't going to let it get away from him. He slowly made his way over and stalked his prey that was too busy taking in the hospitality catering and perusing the desserts.

She had no glass of champagne in her hand, and her hands were pressed together and pressed to her lips and it almost made Klaus stop in his tracks again. It was a gesture he often caught himself doing, and as he recognized this, Stefan's words, '_you two are more alike than you know_,' flew through his mind. What if Stefan was right? What if the universe was bringing them together? Their chemistry was undeniable, they were both on the same life tracks, their paths were crossing for who knows how long; maybe Stefan wasn't as unhinged or sentimental as Klaus chalked him up to be.

Well there was only one way to find out, so Klaus put his game face back on and walked over and stood beside Caroline at the table. He saw her admiring a chocolate sculpture and glanced down at her plate and, seeing the pile of cookies mounted on it, chuckled.

"So you like horses?"

Caroline glanced up at him eying her, the chocolate horse sculpture and horseshoe cookies on her plate suspiciously and she gave him a once over and looked away, ignoring him and looking over the rest of the dessert table.

"I heard that one staff bloke, I think his name was Ric, saying that the chocolate statue was a leftover from a horseback riding competition that canceled without enough notice, and they ordered too many horseshoe cookies for St. Patrick's Day last week..."

"I'm not talking to you until you tell me why you replaced Stefan at the last minute," Caroline suddenly said pointedly, making sure not to look a Klaus while she spoke.

"I fancy you." Her head snapped up in surprise and she regarded him with a wary and doubtful look. It made him chuckle inside and he smiled wryly at her.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"Yes!"

"Why?" He replied automatically, "You're beautiful, you're...you're strong, you're full of light." Klaus couldn't believe the words that were tumbling out of his mouth no more than Caroline apparently could and he paused to try and think of the right thing to say to her, and merely came up with, "I enjoy you."

"Yeah, well I'm spoken for..." She replied quickly, tossing a chocolate covered strawberry on her plate unceremoniously and stepping further down the table away from him. But Klaus wasn't giving up that easily.

"By Tyler?" He ventured a guess and her hand froze as she reached for the mini cannolis and he knew he'd hit the nail on the head. "But I thought you two ended things?" Unbeknownst to her, he had taken the magazine Elijah had shown him back to his room when he'd tried to relax during the soundcheck, before the show, and had read the interview that she'd done with the magazine, twice.

It had speculated that she and her boyfriend of nearly 18 months, the famous football player Tyler Lockwood, had split even though many had predicted he was going to propose to her within the year.

"Yeah, because of you and my stupid tour with you!" Caroline suddenly spat at Klaus, who was caught off guard, but only for a moment as the realization that she's all but dispelled her earlier statement as a falsehood with this impassioned admission.

"So you aren't spoken for?" He said slowly, and much more like a statement than a question. Caroline opened her mouth to respond to him but after a moment, closed it and turned away, not in spite, but Klaus saw sadness briefly cross her face before her face was hidden from his view. He realized he might have been too insistent about a topic Caroline didn't want to discuss; afterall, the interview was conducted and published all very recently. The wounds were still fresh, and although she'd reproached the tour they were currently on, he knew she didn't mean it; anyone could tell from the show tonight that Caroline was a performer, through and through, and loved nothing better than performing for an audience. When she did, she lit up brighter than any light source in the entire galaxy.

He backpedaled, not meaning to make her sad, and made his attempt at looking at the bright side of her situation.

"Oh well, small town hero, small town dreams... It wouldn't have been enough for you in the long run..." He'd done a little Googling after he'd read the article and learned that the Lockwood boy had come from small town America, just like Caroline, and sources said it was one of the things they bonded over. That and estrangement from their fathers before their father's untimely and unexpected deaths. But Lockwood wasn't the only one with "daddy issues" for Caroline to bond with.

Even while reading up on what the gossip rags reported about Caroline and Tyler, Klaus never thought they'd work out; and he'd come to that conclusion before becoming smitten with her on the stage. While Tyler was a player in the NFL with aspirations and goals, they were much more limiting than Caroline's goals were; he was bound by contracts to stay stateside while her tour was taking her over different parts of the globe once the US leg of their tour was over. When he wasn't in season, Tyler did nothing of consequence other than returning home or returning to his home in the city of his team, whereas the gossip sources reported how Caroline loved to travel even when she wasn't on tour. That fact aside, both were too focused on their careers for a long distance relationship to feasibly work, and Klaus sniffed that out even before he'd met Caroline.

But instead of looking up at him with gratitude for sharing his sentiments like he expected, she looked at him with anger and disgust and she suddenly scoffed.

"If that's your way of trying to make me feel better, then try harder, Einstein, because you've failed, miserably!" She replied with a roll of her eyes and she took her plate of snacks and moved away from him quickly. He waited a moment and saw her go and sit in a seat with some vacant chairs in the corner of the room and he followed after her, and sat down in a chair beside her.

"As a matter of fact, I was trying to make you feel better, and it should have done the job, because your spirit could never be free if it here chained and shackled down to a man who cares more about throwing a pigskin around than being with his girlfriend."

"Oh, like you're one to talk about relationships, Niklaus I-Know-My-Way-Around-Every-Brothel-In-Every-City-In-The-Continental-United-States-and-Europe-And-They-Know-Me-By-My-First-Name Mikaelson..." He sat silently staring at her, dumbfounded since it was the last response he expected to get from his opinion which he'd pressed upon her moments ago. When he didn't respond, a finger was suddenly pointing in his face, accompanied by a knowing look and "Aha, I gotcha!" tone.

"You weren't the only one that read up on the other today, Mister..." she said emphatically as she waved her finger at him. "And no matter how good you are on guitar, it's going to take a little more than some hardcore jamming to make me swoon at the sight of you."

"I wouldn't exactly call your reaction _swooning_, per say, sweetheart," he said, his voice dropping lower and sounding more husky. "Although it did seem to _arouse something _in you, at least in some aspect of the word..." he added, hooking his booted foot around the back of her chair leg and slowly sliding her chair closer to his. He watched her breathing get slower and more labored and soon their chairs clicked as they slammed together and she looked up at him through her thick, long lashes. He felt himself slowly leaning in searching her eyes for any kind of hesitation or call to stop, but when all he saw was lust, he keep moving forward.

There may have been lust in her eyes, but what Klaus didn't see was her lips starting to pull up into a smile and suddenly she was pulling away and laughing, her free hand that wasn't holding her dessert plate covering her mouth as she laughed.

"Yeah, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that to get into my pants," she said abruptly, and quickly added, "And I'm not even _wearing pants_ right now." She looked down and gestured to her outfit, her same one from earlier that drove him to madness and she seemed to remember this and added disbelievingly, "I'M NOT EVEN WEARING UNDERWEAR!"

She began to laugh and, before he could even think of a response, suddenly Stefan, Lexi and Anna were crossing towards them.

"Hey guys! We've convinced Stefan to go with us, so Anna Bananas, Stefan and I are going to go to Studio 413, are you guys interested?" Lexi asked quickly and excitedly. Klaus was about to reply he'd prefer to hang out in a more intimate setting than a club, but Caroline spoke first.

"Sure, that sounds like fun!" She said quickly, standing and leaving her untouched dessert plate on a nearby table. She linked one arm with Anna and the other with Lexi, but suddenly a pair of hands was doing its best to try and rip her and Lexi apart.

"No fair, bitches! I'm coming too!" Katherine called, her voice warbling, and the three girls knew there was no way that Katherine Pierce, Katherine dances on tables with a bottle of tequila in one hand and a bottle of vodka on the other Pierce, was like that after one glass of champagne.

"Yeah, no you're not," Caroline said sweetly, gently guiding her friend to the exit. "You're going to go drink a lot of water and sleep off the champagne and pain meds, since I'm suspecting you took some right before you came to toast with everyone even though you swore you hadn't."

"No, NO! No, I didn't swore, I promise I told the right!" Katherine attempted to argue, but her speech was becoming harder and harder to follow. "I only took 1 pill bug," she added, but holding up three fingers didn't do any better at convincing anyone. If anything it only made them more nervous.

"Caroline, don't worry about her, I've got her. I want to get a good night's sleep and she just needs to detox and sleep this off, don't worry about it," Bonnie insisted as she wrapped Katherine's arm around her shoulders and helped her walk to the exit.

"Are you sure, Bon? I feel horrible leaving you two," Caroline started to ask but Elijah held up a respectful hand and nodded at her, acknowledging her worry and taking it in stride.

"Don't fret, Caroline. I too am electing to stay behind like Bonnie. I've never been one for the club scene, and I have some paperwork to get done and emails to send, so I'm more than happy to assist Bonnie in taking care of Katherine." Elijah assuaged all Caroline's fears and placed himself on Katherine's other side and helped the girl steer the brunette to the exit and most likely to the bus, where they'd had kept the kitty caged earlier.

Caroline and her two friends merely shook their heads at their poor, drugged up friend and continued on to hop in the car that would take them to the club.

"Klaus, are you coming?" Caroline heard Stefan call over his shoulder as he followed the girls out. She kept walking, trying to pretend she wasn't waiting with bated breath to hear his response. What she didn't see was that he was looking at his cellphone, scrolling through and reading texts messages from someone, and he was getting them more than ever now that the show was over. But instead of typing a response back, he instead stood and shoved his phone in his pocket.

"You know what? I will go," He said, sounding as if he'd tried to talk himself out of going. Caroline sighed and tried to stop her heart from racing. If only she'd been that lucky.

\m/ . \m/

* * *

**Author's Note:  
**Hi everyone! Thanks so much for reading!

First off, for those of you reading Green Card, don't worry! I have not, repeat NOT, abandoned it! I actually have cranked out the majority of Chapter 5, and now I just have to write the ending! And I promise I will post it soon!

Secondly, this will be a 3-Part one shot, and ONLY a 3-Part one shot! I do not intend on making this a full-fledged fic, I've got one fic on my plate already, I beta others, and I have other ideas for new fics, so it's just not feasible for me to make this a full length fic.

Thirdly and lastly, I want to give a major shout out to my lovely writer lady peeps who were so supportive with their praise, constructive criticism, and beta-ing: **Christine** (_melanoradrood_), **Miranda** (_livingdeadblondegirl_), **Alex** (tumblr-_klarolineepiclove_;ff-_authenticheart_) and **Deej** (tumblr-_jomosfamilyjewels_; ff-_The Deej_)

They are the reason this is getting publish. Words poured out of my brain and into a Google Doc, and they chipped away at it and blew off the dust and helped me make this a reality. I owe them so much.

So please R&R and let me know what you think! ;)

**Peace & Love,**  
**Becky xo**


	2. Part 2: One More Night

**Where Words Fail  
**_A Klaroline One Shot  
_Part 2 of 3

* * *

\m/ . \m/

"I'll have a double, on the rocks."

"Come on, Klaus, we're in a bar...at least be a little more imaginative." Klaus turned and looked at Stefan irritably before rolling his eyes and turning back to the bartender.

"Whiskey sour?" He corrected his order before turning back and after seeing his friend's smug face glanced back at the bartender, "Better make that a double." He saw the annoyed smirk on his friend's face and Klaus shrugged innocently.

"What? It has fruit in it..."

Stefan just chuckled, raising his eyebrows at his friend before reaching for his Jack and Coke and holding his glass up.

"Cheers," the younger Salvatore said, waiting for the lead singer to hold up the glass the bartender slid down to him, who begrudgingly clinked glasses with him before they both drank, Klaus' sip larger than Stefan's. Stefan looked over at his friend, taking in his moody expression, then followed his gaze and found what had captivated his friend; or _whom_, he should say. His blonde best friend was less than two feet away, doing shots with her bandmates and laughing, regaling their successful performance hours earlier.

"Oh my god! We rocked it! I hope the audiences are that great every night!" Anna said excitedly.

"Well it helps that this one slinks up from the audience every time," Lexi said, bumping hips with Caroline, who smirked and bumped her right back.

"Oh please, remember that guy in Chicago that got your autograph tattooed on his arm?! He followed us to four different cities!" Caroline teased, then suddenly acted like she'd been struck speechless and started trembling and shaking. "P-p-please Al-l-l-l-l-lexis! Sign m-m-my face! It'll match m-m-my b-b-b-bicep!" She made all the trembling gesticulations the man had made and Anna and Lexi cracked up.

"Well that right there was his problem!" Lexi said, smirking, sipping her cocktail, "No one fucking calls me, 'Alexis,' except my mom. And thank God that bitch is dead! She's probably rolling in her grave knowing her only daughter is a drummer, not a stay-at-home with a baby on each hip!"

"Well then, to rolling some graves!" Anna said proudly, holding up her glass and her bandmates clinked their glasses with hers.

"Cheers!" The two blondes laughed together and the three sipped their matching light pink drinks.

"Excuse me ladies!" the bartender called, getting their attention again, and suddenly he was placing more shots in front of them. Caroline's eyes widened, not sure what he was doing.

"I'm sorry, we didn't order these!"

"No, I did," she heard his husky voice behind her and it made a shiver run up her spine and made her tingle all over. She did her best to pull herself together before turning to see the dimpled smirk, she'd been hoping would've stayed home, directed at her.

"So, what are we drinking, girls?" Stefan said, suddenly appearing next to Anna.

"Red Headed Sluts!" Lexi called excitedly over the roar of the crowd and Caroline glanced to the side and saw the bartender sliding two more shot glasses over to them.

"Sounds delicious," Klaus murmured under his breath as he reached for his shot just past Caroline, their faces inches away and Caroline's breath caught.

They had ditched their jackets in the town car, knowing it'd be hotter in the packed club and they were all wearing the same clothes that they'd worn during the concert. Klaus had pushed the sleeves of his white henley up to his elbows and his forearm brushed the exposed skin of Caroline's upper arm when he reached for his shot.

She did her best to ignore the electricity that passed through her from the single brush, but she knew the liquor would help her forget anything she wanted to forget tonight. She turned quickly to the bar to take her shot and missed Klaus's knowing smirk. He was fairly certain he'd seen the blonde bombshell's eyelids flutter when he'd leaned forward to get his shot, and the brush against her arm might or might not have been accidental. Klaus would never tell.

"Cheers," Klaus said, smirking at the group, raising his shot glass to each person and Caroline last. Everyone murmured their cheers, except for Caroline, and they all threw back their shot glasses, downing the contents in one gulp. He reached past Caroline to put his shot glass back on the bar, but she was wise to his game this time and took a step closer to Lexi.

The music blasting through every speaker in the joint suddenly changed and Lexi screamed, blowing out the eardrums of everyone standing around her if they weren't already shot to hell.

"OH MY GOD! I LOVE THIS SONG!" As she screamed her declaration, Anna and Caroline listened and immediately realized what song it was and soon the three girls were singing along.

_**I hear your heartbeat to the beat of the drums**_

Everyone in the club matched the drum beat in the song and stomped with their feet, including Anna, Caroline and Lexi, and they even pounded on the bar with their fists.

_**Oh what a shame that you came here with someone**_

_**So while you're here in my arms**_

_**Let's make the most of the night**_

_**Like we're gonna die young!**_

"OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS SONG TOO!" Caroline screamed happily with Lexi and Anna suddenly grabbed her hand.

"Come on!" the raven haired girl called, pulling Caroline to the dance floor. Just before she was out of reach, Caroline reached back and grabbed Lexi's wrist and yanked her away from the bar. Stefan was luckily close enough to take the drink out of the drummer's hand before she spilled it everywhere as her friend jerked her down to the dance floor, and he merely laughed and sniffed it questioningly before putting it back on the bar and reaching for his drink.

"A lively little bunch, aren't they?" Klaus said, watching the girls cross to the middle of the dance floor as the song started to pick up into the first verse. He was really watching one in particular, but Stefan chuckled at his question and his laugh made Klaus tear his eyes away from the blonde dancing with her friends.

"'Lively' is putting it nicely. After I introduced Caroline and Lexi, they took me to this new club they had heard of, and the next day was a shit show to say the least. We woke up in a stranger's apartment, had no cell phones, Caroline was wearing someone else's shirt and had no idea how she got it or who it belonged to, Lexi had at least three different phone numbers Sharpied on her arms, and I left without my pants."

Klaus burst out laughing. "That's quite a story, mate."

"Yeah well, all you get are stories after you go out with these hellions," Stefan said, half laughing and half groaning as he finished off his drink and signaled the bartender for another. Before they knew it, the song was changing and Lexi was slinking back up towards Stefan and Klaus, an animated smile on her face as she zeroed in on the man to Klaus's left.

"No, I know that look. You know I don't dance, Lexi Branson," Stefan said, holding up a hand, gulping down some more of his drink.

"I know you don't dance," Lexi started, repeating his words and sounding defeated until a grin spread across her face, "unless you're dancing with me." Stefan groaned loudly like a child that was told he couldn't get an ice cream until after he got a check up and Klaus chuckled, liking the blonde even more as he saw how she challenged his friend.

"You already violently assaulted my hair with hair care products; haven't I suffered enough today?" He whined before taking a large gulp, and Lexi laughed and rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh my god! You're such a baby!" She half laughed and half growled at him, crossing to take his drink out of his hand and placed it on the bar. "Come on!" Klaus laughed as he watched the tenacious blonde drag his friend to the dance floor and it led his eyes to scan the crowd for another blonde again and he finally spotted her.

Caroline smiled as she moved her body in time to the music, flinging her head around, not caring how tangled or matted it might get. When Lexi had left them to grab Stefan, some cute guy, Jeremy he said his name was, came over to them and really sweetly and politely asked Anna to dance. She'd protested at first, saying that she was dancing with her friend, but Caroline saw the disappointment on the guy's face and she was getting really good vibes from him, so she insisted they dance together.

Jeremy and Anna were close, but still far enough away from Caroline to not be awkward as they got wrapped up in each other while they danced. Caroline glanced around, keeping tabs on her friends and once she'd taken her headcount and saw everyone, she smiled to herself and kept dancing, not concerned with finding herself a dance partner at all. But suddenly she felt someone tap her shoulder.

She turned and smiled back at the friendly, handsome face that was smiling at her. His bright brown eyes were almost as captivating as his big smile, just above his George Clooney-esque chin. The song had continued to the deep male synthesized portion and she did her best to listen in to what he was going to say over the top of the music.

_**Come on and evacuate**_

_**Feel the club is heating up**_

_**Move on and accelerate**_

_**Push it to the top**_

"Hi, I'm Joe, would you like to dance?"

"Sure, Joe," Caroline said, glancing at him and not picking up on anything that made her not want to dance with him, and wrapped her arms around his neck and slid closer to him. "I'm Caroline."

"Pretty name for a pretty girl," he said and she chuckled, even though she'd heard that one before. She tried grinding with him face to face, but he was struggling with it a bit, so she smoothly and stealthily turned so that she could grind with him front to back.

Most guys she meets aren't able to grind face to face, either by sheer lack of skill or discomfort with being face to face, and in either case were more than happy to grind and dance as was typical, with the girl in front of them and their hands on their hips. Joe immediately loosened up and his hands held her hips comfortably as they danced, and Caroline pulled out a more salacious body roll here and there when she felt like it or when the music called to her.

_**Come on and evacuate**_

_**Feel the club is heating up**_

_**Move on and accelerate**_

_**You don't have to be afraid**_

Just before the verse finished, they suddenly heard a verse call, "Caroline!" She and Joe looked up and Caroline could see Anna crossing to an opening in the dance floor near them and she began busting out the short dance routine they'd learned in a hip hop dance class they'd taken just for fun. She started to garner a small audience that had started to cheer her on, and she looked up again and called to Caroline again to join her.

Joe loosened his hands as if he knew Caroline would go join her friend, and Caroline threw him a smile quickly before she ran over and joined Anna, jumping in with the choreography. The crowd went wild as they danced to the rapper's beat, their movements seeming as if they'd been choreographed for the song even though Caroline and Anna knew they weren't.

_**Now guess who's back with a brand new track?**_

_**They got everybody in the club going mad**_

_**So everybody in the back**_

_**Get your back up off the wall and just shake that thang**_

_**Go crazy**_

_**Yo lady**_

_**Yo baby**_

_**Let me see you wreck that thang**_

_**Now drop it down low, low**_

_**Let me see you take it to the dancefloor, yo**_

_**Everybody in the club**_

_**(Evacuate the dancefloor)**_

_**Everybody in the club**_

_**(I'm infected by the sound)**_

_**Everybody in the club**_

_**(Stop this beat is killing me)**_

_**Hey Dr. DJ let the music take me underground**_

Once the song started to repeat the chorus's lyrics, Anna and Caroline's choreography died down and the girls laughed and high fived each other, and the small crowd around them cheered and applauded. Caroline watched as Jeremy reemerged from the crowd and snaked his arms around Anna's waist, pulling her back to his chest and he whispered something in her ear and she immediately spun in his arms and started kissing him passionately.

"_Wow, that didn't take long,_" Caroline thought to herself, but she was happy for her friend. Anna had been having a bit of a dry spell when it came to guys, what with all the touring and some family issues she was having, but Caroline still got good vibes from Jeremy so she was okay with him being with Anna. She just hoped that Anna didn't get too attached since they were leaving tomorrow in the early afternoon.

Seeing her friend wrapped up in her impromptu dance partner, she thought back and wondered if she might be able to find Joe since she dashed away to join Anna to dance momentarily. Before she had to even start to look for him, she felt a pair of arms snake around her own waist and she chuckled and leaned back against the lean body behind her.

"I should've known you'd find me," Caroline said, knowing he had heard her by the way he squeezed her hips, and she resumed dancing with him and grinding her body against his.

She was surprised, though, that he was dancing with much more confidence and passion than he had before. Her dance break with Anna must have impressed him and he must have felt like he needed to step up his game. She was enjoying herself much more now that Joe was dancing more confidently because he was committing to his movements, feeling the music and responding to her much better.

She gasped as she felt his hands slide down the fronts of her thighs and drag down her fishnets, and she couldn't help her body's instinctive response to fall back against his torso as they did. She would've seen his face had he not had it buried in her neck, and found herself wishing he'd kiss it.

As his hands came sliding back up, Caroline pulled her torso away from his slightly and she felt his hands slide up adventurously from her waist to her sides, barely grazing the sides of her breasts. She brought her own hands up to her messy locks, bunching them up and welcoming some air on her hot neck.

Keeping her hands up had given him more access to drag his hands up her sides, but almost as if he were reading her mind, she suddenly felt a gentle puff of cold air on the back of her neck and down her back and she sighed at the exquisite feeling. The cool air had clung to the beads of sweat on her neck and she was almost embarrassed to think he could see sweat running down her back. Joe didn't seem to mind though, since his hands made their way back to her waist and pulled her back against his groin even more tightly.

"_Oh, so that's what you want?_" Caroline thought devilishly to herself, "_Fine then, you've got it._"

Caroline decided to pull out what Lexi had teasingly dubbed, "Her Stripper Move," and after glancing around and seeing that she had enough room, leaned forward completely, and arched her back before planting a hand on the ground to use as leverage to to grind against him. He didn't say a word, but she felt his fingers dig into her hips more and she proceeded to dance against him, half grinding and half popping her butt against him. Her free hand rooted itself in her locks again as she arched her back against him, and after a while she straightened up again and danced against him.

"You're quite the dancer," he suddenly said and Caroline froze completely and her heart dropped into her stomach.

That wasn't Joe's voice. It was an accented one that also came with a dimpled smirk.

She tried to dash away, but his hands grabbed her and spun her around to face him and she was face to face with the man himself, and he greeted her with the dimples and smirk she had predicted and it only induced her to scowl and scoff at him.

"Take your hands off of me," she said, but his hands held her tight to his body.

"You didn't seem to mind them being on you a moment ago, love," he said lasciviously, his hands sliding along her lower torso and legs, but never losing their hold on her.

"I thought you were someone else," she said through gritted teeth, trying to give him the most hateful look she could muster even though she knew her body was betraying her. Damn her fickle senses, revealing feelings and desires she wished to keep hidden.

"Oh, come now, don't try to pass off what we just did as something you meant for another," Klaus insisted and he leaned down to bury his nose back at her neck and she heard him murmur against her skin. "You didn't dance on stage tonight for the audience or anyone else. You know that as well as I do." She felt one of his hands leave her waist and lightly twirl a lock of her hair around his finger, and she took it as an opportunity to attempt fleeing again.

"Fuck off!" she spat at him, breaking free of him and stepping away quickly. She almost made it, but he caught her wrist at the last and yanked her back now so her back was pressed up against his chest.

"I'll take that as a challenge," he said, feeling her body half rigid and half relaxed against his. He brought his lips down to her right ear and murmured, "Just try and deny that you feel something, Caroline. Anything at all, just try_; I dare you._"

She cursed her body for betraying her once more as she felt herself melt into him. Her name fell from his lips, like the richest velvet or the smoothest silk, and she remembered the electricity she had felt when she performed with him on the stage that night. She realized she should've known that he had replaced Joe, and she heard him chuckle.

"The best part of this is that you're just as stubborn as I am," he chuckled, apparently amused with this fact rather than annoyed, "And it makes you that much more enthralling, sweetheart; knowing you're too smart to be seduced by me."

There was a perceptible shift, not just because the music had transitioned and a new song had begun to filter through the sound system, but the tone and quality of his words had made her turn her head gently, causing him to lift his up, and their eyes finally met. As they gazed into each other's eyes, Caroline searched for some quality, some sentiment in his eyes that she could fault him for, but was amazed when she found none.

Instead she saw not only lust, but sincerity and honesty in his eyes as well. His tone had been one not of arrogance or excitement at the prospect of wooing her; no, Caroline had looked up at him because there was a certain appreciation and reverence in his tone. It was there for her to read in his eyes as clear as day, as if he'd spoken his feelings aloud...

He saw her as his equal and not a prize to be won.

At the toast after the show, she'd been sure that his attempts to chat her up, woo her, and give her the heady sex eyes he was giving her now were all just some rockstar conquest he had; take the young ingenue, his opening act, and claim her before anyone else did and just because he could.

But looking back at him now, she knew he was doing exactly what he'd done with his guitar on the stage; he was challenging her and acknowledging her and her abilities and hoping that she'd reciprocate and match him in his endeavors; not swoon and fall subservient to him.

She heard the melodic and recognizable vocalization in the next song truly pick up, and Klaus's hands loosened their grip on her body but still rested lightly against her skin.

"The music calls to you the way your body calls to me," he said, his voice husky and she felt her breathing becoming labored, but she dare not tear her eyes away from his that blazed with the same fire as his words.

He slowly and languidly started to roll his body against hers, and the way he lightly held her body told her that if she tried to leave now, he'd let her go; and from the look on his face, it seemed as if he almost expected her to leave. Her mind was telling her to go, that it was too soon, that she was still heartbroken over losing Ty, that getting involved with her main act's lead singer was a bad idea.

Her gaze fell from his as she began to debate with herself, but once again, almost as if he could read her mind, one of his hands left her waist and gently turned her face back towards his.

"Hey," he said, sounding much softer and kinder than before, and she couldn't help but look at him in amazement and surprise, "It's okay, it's just me."

His tone and expression seemed to be trying to reassure her and calm her, and surprisingly they did. She didn't know what it was about him, but she was drawn to him just as much as he was apparently to her. She knew she'd probably regret it in the morning, but feeling his hand that had turned her face to rub her jaw with his thumb made her ready to go to Hell in a handbasket.

He continued rolling his body gently against hers, and as the first verse began, she began to move with him, her eyes never leaving his.

_**You and I go hard at each other like we're going to war.**_

_**You and I go rough, we keep throwing things and slamming the door.**_

_**You and I get so damn dysfunctional, we stopped keeping score.**_

_**You and I get sick, yeah, I know that we can't do this no more.**_

At some point in the middle of the first part of the song, Caroline had turned in Klaus's arms to face him, and it had happened so fluidly, she wasn't sure if she'd turned or if he had turned her, or both; however it happened, she didn't care, because even so, he'd not torn his gaze from hers for one second.

One of her hands hung at her side while the other rested lightly against his chest, gently gripping the necklaces that hung around his neck, as they continued to move together. Slowly and gently, Klaus's hands left her waist and brought her hands up to wrap around his neck.

_**Yeah, but baby there you go again, there you go again, making me love you.**_

_**Yeah, I stopped using my head, using my head, let it all go.**_

Once he felt her fingers lace at the back of his neck, his hands slid slowly down her arms, one resting on her wrist and the other on her forearm, and his face leaned down until their foreheads were touching and it was the first time that that they'd broken eye contact the entire time.

_**Got you stuck on my body, on my body, like a tattoo.**_

_**And now I'm feeling stupid, feeling stupid, crawling back to you.**_

During the bridge, the hand that Klaus had rested on her forearm had slowly slid down her body to rest on her hip again. It wasn't as if he needed to anchor himself to her; if she wasn't lost in their synchronicity, she would've been amazed at how easily he danced with her face to face. She didn't know if she was drunk off the Red Headed Sluts and the Flirtini or drunk off of him, but she was losing herself in him and the music, and she couldn't deny how fucking brilliant and amazing it felt.

_**So I cross my heart and I hope to die**_

_**That I'll only stay with you one more night**_

_**And I know I said it a million times**_

_**But I'll only stay with you one more night**_

As the chorus turned into the next verse, Caroline opened her eyes and unlaced her fingers and slid her hands down Klaus's chest, causing him to pick his head up from hers and open his eyes as well. Once his eyes had found hers, she slid her hands down and leaned back, arching into him as she leaned back and she heard Adam Levine sing.

_**Try to tell you "no" but my body keeps on telling you "yes".**_

She felt his arms holding her, not letting her fall, and she gently rolled back up and looked at him heatedly. He gave her the same impassioned stare and she slid her hands up her torso and over her curves and up her neck until her hands were tangled in her blonde mane again, lifting it up from her neck.

_**Try to tell you "stop", but your lipstick got me so out of breath.**_

_**I'll be waking up in the morning, probably hating myself.**_

Klaus's hands had followed the trail her hands had left up her body and his hands found hers and laced his fingers with hers, but remained above her head as their bodies continued to move together. Caroline couldn't help the sigh that had escaped her as she imagined their bodies pressed together in a similar fashion, his hands pinning hers above her head, pinning her against a wall and ravishing her in the way his dancing promised he not only could, but would ravish her.

_**And I'll be waking up, feeling satisfied but guilty as hell.**_

Soon she felt his hands release hers and slide down her head to hold the sides of her face and her hands covered his as they pulled her face closer to his. Her heartbeat quickened and their faces were so close, their noses actually touched.

_**Yeah, but baby there you go again, there you go again, making me love you.**_

_**Yeah, I stopped using my head, using my head, let it all go.**_

_**Got you stuck on my body, on my body, like a tattoo.**_

_**And now I'm feeling stupid, feeling stupid, crawling back to you.**_

They never looked away from the other's eyes, and eventually his hands made their way back down her curves to her hips and her hands went to his chest. One of her hands grabbed and held the fabric of his vest and the other tangled in his necklaces again, pulling them and keeping their faces close together.

_**So I cross my heart and I hope to die**_

_**That I'll only stay with you one more night**_

_**And I know I said it a million times**_

_**But I'll only stay with you one more night**_

As the song began to repeat the well-known "_**Oooh Oooh Oooh Ooohs**_", Caroline sensed him shift and she watched as his face tilted slightly towards hers and she suddenly realized what was about to happen, and she remembered where she was, who she was dancing with and her earlier fears all came flooding back to her.

Her fingers quickly loosened their grip on both his vest and necklaces, and they flattened against his chest and pushed him away. His forward movement, however, met with her resistant gesture only caused her to push back from him and separate their bodies, which was just as effective for her and did the same job.

His eyes that had been half-lidded suddenly snapped open, looking surprised, and she couldn't help but feel a little guilty that he looked a little hurt as well. She hoped her eyes conveyed her apology and she turned and ran as fast as her feet could carry her to the bathroom, the one place she instinctually sought since she knew it was the one place she could be truly away from him.

The club, for some reason, had one of those single person bathrooms, even though she and Anna and Lexi had no idea why, but she saw her opening as she neared the door and line of women waiting and saw someone exiting the bathroom. Caroline pushed past all the women breathlessly, and when they all yelled and groaned and called her nasty names, she apologized and continued past them and into the bathroom.

There was a tiny stall surrounding the single toilet, but Caroline stopped and turned and placed a hand on either side of the sink, leaning against the countertop to take deep breaths and get her bearings back, not bothering to lock the door behind herself. She knew the women outside would wait, it was just too inefficient to lock the door that blocked the entire bathroom from the club.

What had just happened? She'd been dancing with Klaus for nearly a full three minutes but it felt as if she'd been transported to some other universe and they'd been wrapped up in each other's embrace for three hours instead. And she'd seen his face and knew immediately what he'd been about to do...he'd been about to kiss her.

And she'd ran away.

She looked up at herself in the mirror and studied herself. Her hair was even wilder than it was before, her eyes were dilated, her eye makeup was smudged a bit, her chest was heaving as her lungs tried to take in as much oxygen as possible and she couldn't help but notice her nipples were erect within her bra.

How had she come to this? How had she come to hide out in the bathroom to avoid Klaus, whom she'd been grinding against like peppercorns in a pepper grinder only seconds ago.

It was a mistake. A mistake that could never happen again.

She took a deep breath before turning the faucet and letting some cold water run over her hands, and she turned and flicked her fingers at her face, spraying herself lightly with the droplets and she dabbed herself dry with a paper towel. She heard the door suddenly open, and she turned to tell the woman that she was done and the bathroom was all hers.

But it wasn't a her; it was Klaus, and his eyes were ablaze not with lust, but with fury.

"What the hell are you doing, Klaus?! This is the ladies' room!" Caroline said, defensively and Klaus strode right up to her.

"You're a coward." There was silence as Caroline gaped at him, then she finally found her voice.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," he growled, and suddenly he was pointing a finger in her face, "You're too scared to actually take what you want. Or maybe it's that you're scared to _want_ something you want. Either way, that's total bollocks, Caroline, total fucking bollocks."

"Wow, you know I would've ventured a guess at what movie that was from, but the 'total fucking bollocks' is kind of throwing me off," she replied darkly, "But thank you for summarizing my own feelings and thoughts for me so succinctly."

"What do you want, Caroline?!" Klaus suddenly shouted. "I've done nothing but show you and tell you that I fancy you, and for some reason you refuse to believe me, and now you're in a strop for some reason. I mean bloody hell, I've gone as far as follow you into the loo, for Christ's sake..."

Caroline opened her mouth to reply, but his declaration reminded her of where they were having this little confrontation. She thought about telling him he was lucky that a bouncer wasn't dragging him out, or worse, that an angry group of women waiting for the bathroom hadn't jumped him. But no one was storming in after Klaus and dragging him off. The two of them were completely alone.

And that's when it occurred to her...he'd paid them off.

He'd paid off all those women waiting in line to leave them be. Just as easily as he'd bought those shots, he'd bought those women. He obviously was a man that, no matter how difficult or inconceivable it was, got what he wanted. And that was where there was dissonance between them; he didn't treat people he wasn't interested in or needing or using as anything more than his pawns.

"You know what the problem is, Klaus? You have no idea how to just be a normal human being. You've never had nothing. All your life, you've always gotten what you wanted, and if it wasn't handed to you, you took it. Everything is a game to you and _for_ you and we're all just pieces in that game. This is all Klaus's world and we're just in it.

"Would you have shown up to play with my band if you hadn't deemed me attractive first? You were more than happy to have Stefan do the soundcheck and practice with us, even though you were never going to let him play. Then you waltz in, 45 minutes to curtain, and expect me to just fall at your feet, so impressed that you jumped in and played our entire set list?

"You use people and put people beneath you or you try to BUY THEM OFF, but... That's not how it works! You don't get to know people because you don't even try to understand them... I thought I wasn't a prize to be won in your eyes, and I was right. I'm just the first opponent to challenge you in God knows how long. Maybe not getting your way for once will finally teach you some humility and human decency." She finally finished her tirade and stormed past him to leave.

Just as her hand was on the door, she felt his hand grab her arm and pull her back like he had on the dance floor, and she turned angrily, ready to yell at him that she wasn't his yo-yo or toy to just be pushed and yanked around. She was taken completely off guard however as his lips crashed to hers, and she struggled angrily at first, but one of his hands latched to the back of her head, keeping their lips together and the other pulled her lower body flush against his.

Feeling their bodies pressed together once more made Caroline lose her senses all over again and she melted into his embrace without even realizing it and his grip on her softened noticeably. He finally pulled back to look at her face, and he waited for her eyes to slide open again before he spoke. He released her gently, merely taking her hand lightly in his, his thumb rubbing a circle on the top of her hand as he held it.

"Thank you for your honesty," was his quiet and simple reply. He gazed at her and she saw sincerity, just as she had before they really truly started dancing together. Now he really looked ready for her to leave, obviously having less confidence than he'd had on the dance floor moments before. He'd seemed fairly confident then that she'd stay and dance with him when she learned he wasn't Joe, however...

Here in the ladies' room, anything could happen and he looked slightly hopeful, grateful, and passionate, and Caroline was at a loss for words. Since she was without words and without a guitar, she expressed herself the only way she could, which was physically.

Klaus released her hand with a small sigh, telling himself he'd known it was a long shot and as he gently turned away to let her know that there were no hard feelings and he would deal with her choosing to leave; that he didn't expect anything from her.

What he didn't expect, though, was her suddenly jumping him and pushing him back against the stall that surrounded the toilet and planted her lips back on his.

\m/ . \m/

Caroline gasped as she felt Klaus's hands curl around her ass and pull her lower body flush against his and grind them together while he planted frantic kisses along her neck and chest. She let her head fall back against the elevator wall that they were standing in, and she scarcely remembered how they got in the service elevator of Klaus's hotel.

After a rather passionate interlude in the club bathroom, they finally made their way back to the town car and Klaus must have told the driver to take them to his hotel. It was all a little fuzzy since Klaus essentially had her horizontal the whole drive there, grinding his body into hers so forcefully it was like he was trying to bury them into the seat. And there must have been cameras or people waiting out front if they were in the rougher, dirtier service elevator that was typically off limits to guests and used only by employees. Caroline struggled to think through the rest of the details as she felt Klaus's hands slide along her stomach and torso underneath her shirt, just as they had in the car.

She moaned, feeling his hands move higher to cup her breast through the cup of her bra, and she buried her fingers in his hair to yank his head away from where it was, placing hot open mouthed kisses along the neckline of her shirt, and pull him back for a fiery kiss. Klaus had growled with a smirk playing on the corner of his lips when he felt her fingers tugging his roots demandingly and he was more than happy to bring his lips back to hers. She held his face in her hands tightly and kissed him roughly, her lips battering his and smearing her red lipstick all over his mouth, and he loved how strong and dominant she was being with him.

Her mouth broke away from his, though, to gasp as he hooked a hand under each knee to grind himself into her better and harder, and he smirked triumphantly at her reaction, a mixture of shock and ecstasy, before he went back to the soft skin of her chest and neck, kissing, licking and biting whatever he could; he wanted to leave his mark on her.

"You made my heart stop," he groaned against her skin as his hands ran the length of her thighs, still clad in fishnets, "sauntering up to the stage like my most erotic and sensual dream brought to life." Caroline gasped and murmured, his words turning her on as much as his ministrations. Her hands clawed his back as he continued touching her, everywhere and anywhere his hands could reach. Since his hands had begun to slide all over her body again, she'd wrapped her legs around his torso tightly, hooking her ankles and the heels of her boots digging into his backside.

"All I could think about was running my hands over your smooth, pale skin, imagining how soft and creamy it'd feel underneath my fingertips," he murmured, his hands dragging over her legs until she heard him growl low in his throat. She felt the tiny knit strings on her legs jerk and she suddenly felt his hands flush against her bare skin and she gasped.

He'd ripped her fishnets.

"You bastard," she groaned, wishing he could venture further down and take one of her nipples in his mouth instead of teasing her and kissing the tops of her breasts above and through her shirt. She heard him chuckle deep in his throat and felt the vibrations of it against her skin and it gave her goosebumps and she purred, burying her fingers in his messy, dirty blonde curls.

"I regret nothing," he gasped, raising his head and capturing her lips again, grinding into her body as his hands slid along the outsides of her thighs and beneath them, keeping her firmly pressed between his body and the wall. They heard the elevator ding and she felt his hands slide down to caress her ass to hoist her up to carry her out, as if they wouldn't have ended up there again anyway.

They made it a few steps off the elevator before Klaus couldn't help but press her up against one of the walls in the hallway again, their tongues dueling and fighting for control. Caroline released her legs and found her footing again and once she had, she took him by surprise and spun them so that she was instead the one pressing him against the wall. She held him there with a single hand, and they both gasped to catch their breath and smiled at each other devilishly.

Caroline reached down and started to unbutton his vest, displeased with how little of his skin she was able to touch, even though there were few parts of her he hadn't touched...yet. Her lips immediately went to his neck and began placing rough kisses to the column of his throat, the scruff of his chin tickling her forehead. She'd half kiss and half nip a bit of skin then drag her tongue over the spot as if to soothe it, and he groaned each time she did. However, she was getting impatient with the number of buttons she was expected to undo and then Klaus felt a tug and looked down.

She'd ripped open his vest halfway down.

"You bastard," he smirked, mimicking her earlier griping and she glanced up at him and grinned evilly.

"Sorry I'm not sorry," she replied, sliding her hands underneath his white Henley. Klaus shuddered, her smooth hands running up and down the length of his lean torso. Soon he felt her hands at his waist and he gritted his teeth and moaned as she teased him, hooking her fingers around the top edge of his jeans and running them back and forth, the backs of her fingers and knuckles skimming his skin lightly. They stopped and he heard her unbuckling his belt, and his heart skipped a beat.

She really was wicked and he had no doubt she'd have her way with him right there in the hallway, and her brazenness was both shocking and exhilarating. The fact that anyone could walk out at that moment and catch them in a compromising position was thrilling, but Klaus didn't want to share Caroline. He wanted her all to himself, to leave his mark on her, to make her scream his name again and again and forget she'd ever been with any other men before him.

He growled and yanked her up to him, kissing her intently and half scooped and half picked her up and rushed to his door. He slid the keycard into the slot, turning the handle quickly, and kicked it open for him to carry her inside, then quickly and forcefully kicked it closed behind them seconds later.

Jackets, shoes and belongings fell immediately once the door was closed and were left in a trail behind them as Klaus placed Caroline down and they made their way to the king sized bed in the middle of the room. Their hands were all over each other, frantically trying to rip their own clothes and each other's clothes off at the same time, all while their mouths tried to keep battling together.

Klaus's vest and Henley were both off quickly and once they were on the floor, he made quick work of her shirt while she held up her hands for him to pull it up and over her head. She grabbed his face and pulled it to hers again and his hands went to her waist, guiding her down so that she was lying at the foot of the bed and he was hovering over her.

He kissed down her face and neck and he heard her moan as he kissed down the valley between her breasts. He grunted, displeased that her soft mounds were still covered by the bra, and growled in frustration since he didn't know how to go about freeing them. He paused his ministrations and gazed down at her, his eyes intense with desire.

"Take it off," he commanded. "Now."

He thought she would just reach between them and take it off, however she was able to accomplish that, remaining where she was, lying beneath him. But she sat up fully, making him pull back to give her space; her eyes set on his with the ghost of a seductive smile on her lips, her lipstick smeared and rubbed off from his kisses. He watched her attentively as she reached to her left side first, peeling the sticker away, and she used her arm to hold the bra to her chest. She had seemed calm and patient when she'd done the left, but he watched her face twitch and grimace slightly once she'd pulled the right side off a little too quickly.

Then, she suddenly started to push herself back towards the headboard, using one hand while the other held the bra to her breasts. He watched her with fascination and a smile spread across his face, half-intrigued and half-driven to madness as she continued her seduction, keeping them from his view. She rested against the pillows and brought her free hand back up to her face and hooked her finger at him, beckoning him to come to her.

He should've known she wouldn't just serve herself up on a silver platter; of course she'd make him work for it, and he loved that about her. Nothing came easily with Caroline, and although their chemistry was practically ingrained in their bodies, she always surprised him and she was ever the enigma that had suddenly strutted up onto the stage, turning his world upside down.

He slowly crept onto the bed, like a tiger stalking his prey, but he paused and took in her challenging stance as she waited patiently for him to come to her. Just for the fact that she was expecting him to come to her reminded him that she wasn't his prey; she was the tigress, comfortably sitting in what she claimed as her territory, and this confident display of control and dominance drove Klaus absolutely mad. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his existence battling with his ever fierce counterpart that was laid out before him, beckoning him to her like a siren.

If she was his demise, he couldn't think of a better way to go.

Once he was hovering over her again, Caroline's hands released the bra to pull his face to hers again and she met his lips with the same desperate urgency they had in the hallway. He kissed her back, matching her passion and fervor, but slowly he pulled away, and gazed into her eyes as his hands found the bra and tossed it aside. It landed somewhere off the side of the bed, but was completely forgotten the moment it left Klaus's hand.

He slowly tore his heated gaze from hers and pulled back slightly in order to better take her in, lying beneath him, bare except for her torn fishnets and shorts. He glanced back up at her before leaning his head down, and Caroline relaxed, feeling her head touch the wooden headboard as she leaned back. But instead of going right for her breasts, as she'd expected and hoped he would, he peppered light kisses to her chest and the tops of her breasts as he had before. However, with her breasts freed from the black satin bra, the scruff on his chin and face brushed against the smooth, sensitive skin and she gasped, her body tingling and her goosebumps returning.

He kissed between her soft mounds and directly below them, as his hands, calloused and hard from years of playing guitar, gently palmed them and Caroline's hands were in his hair and on his shoulder, gripping them tightly. Suddenly she felt him kiss the side of her breast before kissing the spot where the bra's tape had been and one of his hands rubbed the spot gently. Her breath caught in her throat as he kissed across her torso and repeated the action, kissing the skin that had been taped and caressing it softly, on the other side.

He stilled when he heard her breathing stop and felt her fingers in his hair and on his shoulder soften. He looked back up at her and saw her looking at him in confusion and awe, as if she couldn't believe how gentle he was being or that he'd paid such special attention to the skin that had been restricted with tape. They gazed at each other for a moment before he slowly moved back towards her face, pausing millimeters from her lips and his eyes flitting around her face.

Her fingertips slowly came up and began caressing his face and it took him completely by surprise. He hadn't kissed her skin in order to get her to respond in kind, but she was touching his face as lightly and tenderly as he had kissed her strained skin and he couldn't help himself and he let his eyelids slide shut, reveling in the feeling of her smooth fingertips tracing patterns along his face.

Her fingers did have small callouses on the very point of her finger from playing guitar, but the pads of her fingers, which were tracing the lines and features of his face, were amazingly soft and smooth and he sighed contentedly and gasped when suddenly something else was caressing his face. He felt her body shift up and knew then that she was kissing his face gently, starting on one eyelid then gently ghosting them all over his face before pressing a firm but sweet kiss to his lips.

For a moment, they remained where they were, him comfortably settled between her legs, her lips lightly pressed to his, and then he felt her tongue on his lips again, asking for permission to enter which he gladly gave. Even though their tongues battled again, it was slower, more purposeful and articulated than before, like a slow, sensual tango.

After a while, Klaus began trailing his mouth down her jaw and neck, sucking on her soft, sweet skin as if to consume her and she sighed and moaned with pleasure. he finally made his way down and took a nipple in his mouth, then turned and lavished the same attention upon its twin. The beautiful sighs and murmurs and affirmations that came from her were music to his ears and his payment in kind for his attention, and soon he was insatiable again, and he had to have her.

He began to kiss down her body more and more quickly and she felt him hook his fingers around the tops of her shorts and the waistband of her fishnets and he paused to look up at her, and when she bit her lip and nodded, he peeled them quickly from her body.

She wanted to have him bare and at her fingertips, just as she was to him, but a moan ripped from her throat as she suddenly felt his hand cupping her, and a finger languidly tracing her slit. She was already so wet, and it made him even harder knowing she was just as aroused for him as he was for her.

"Klaus," she breathed, and it was the first time she'd said his name since they were at the club and he immediately, without warning, sunk two fingers into her, hoping to draw his name from her lips again.

"Oh my god, oh, Klaus," she moaned loudly, her back arching off the bed and pushing her closer to his hand, which began to move and tease her, his fingers pumping while his thumb teased her little bundle of nerves. After awhile the only things she gasped and moaned were either wordless sounds or his name, if she even was able to say it in its entirety. He felt her walls begin to tighten around his hand and he knew she was reaching her climax.

He then hooked his fingers, knowing he'd reach that spot inside of her, and her moans let him know he had her as they became louder and became more like screams. He continued his movements, kissing her stomach and torso as he did, and soon her fingers were grabbing his short curls and her body trembled as she screamed, her walls clenching down around his fingers, and waves of bliss rolling over her. Klaus groaned with her, the thought of her walls clenching around his dick like that almost too much for him to handle. He had to have her right now.

Caroline whimpered as she felt his body leave hers, but when she saw him sit up into a kneeling position, she knew it was time for the main event and a wanton grin spread across her face. She sat up with him and held his torso as she began to place kisses along his bare chest. He watched her adoringly, and she slipped her hands into both of his front pockets and found what she was looking for. She immediately and unexpectedly took control and she pulled him down with her and flipped him so that she was straddling him. He chuckled seeing her triumphant expression and she kissed down his torso and quickly rid him of his jeans and boxer briefs.

"Really? Mr. Big Bad Rocker doesn't go commando?"

"Oh I do, love, and I did during the concert," he replied, an amused smile on his face as they discussed the irony of his underwear. "Actually, I did during your opening. Found myself needing a bit of a barrier after your...inspiring performance on the stage. I thought I might be a little more comfortable with some kind of buffer." He smiled when she chuckled, loving the sound of her laugh and feeling happy he made her smile.

As her chuckling simmered down, the mood changed as she watched him and all he could figure was that the lust that was slowly returning to her gaze was the knowledge that his arousal for her was the only reason he donned underwear. Just another example of the power she had over him, whether she was aware of it or not.

He sat up on his forearms watched her and before he knew it, she'd ripped the condom she had retrieved from his pocket open with her teeth and was sliding down his body.

"Joan Jett said that, 'My guitar is not a thing. It is an extension of myself. It is who I am,'" Caroline said, in between kissing his lower abdomen, driving him wild with want, as all he wanted her to do was take him in her mouth and have her way with him. He hissed as he felt her suddenly grab his base and as she slid the condom slowly down his length, her confession continued.

"When you played, I was...mesmerized. You were channeling everything you had inside you, every thought, every feeling, every memory, and put it in your guitar and it was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen in my entire life. It was inspiring, and soul-bearing, and raw and I've never wanted a person more. I thought if that's even a glimpse of who he is, I want every bit of him," she took his sheathed length in her hand and pumped her hand around it.

Her words and actions making Klaus thrash a bit, gripping the sheets tightly in his fists as she kissed his lower abdomen, murmuring against his skin. "I want every single inch of him if that's his soul he's playing..."

"Then take me," Klaus barked, his voice strained, trying to contain himself despite how her hand and body were demanding otherwise. Caroline pursed her lips before grinning, seeing how keyed up she'd made him, and quickly crawled up his body and, taking hold of him again, slid herself down on him and they both groaned.

They began moving quickly, Caroline's hands clawed at his chest while Klaus's nails dug into her hips, neither caring if one or the other drew blood. Caroline's hands flew to her breasts, gripping them as she impaled herself on him again and again and Klaus's hands pulled her down on him harder and harder each time. Soon Caroline's hands were gripping the headboard, using it for leverage to push down on him and she moaned, "Harder, Klaus."

She didn't have to ask him twice and soon his hips were rearing up off the bed, meeting her thrust for thrust, the sound of skin slapping and their moans and gasps of pleasure filling the air. Caroline shuttered and he felt her walls clamping down on him as another orgasm took her, and he took deep, heaving breaths to keep himself from falling over the edge with her. The alpha in him wouldn't stop until she was begging him for mercy; until she was screaming his name so loudly that the entire hotel knew he was branding her, body and soul.

Klaus sat up and gathered her in his arms, his mouth scorching hers with his kiss, and he easily began to move her body up and down again. His hands were on her face and her hands were on his, just as they had been at the club, and this wasn't lost on Klaus. After her second orgasm, she was like putty in his hands. He began kissing her chest as he continued pumping into her, and she did exactly what he wanted and leaned back to give him better access to her chest. He'd seen her flexibility in her stage performance, and he was eager to see it now in the bedroom.

He kissed across her chest, gently pushing her back further and further until she was laying on her back against his legs, still straddling him on her knees with him inside her. They both murmured in delight as they felt how deep he was in her at this new angle.

Klaus wrapped his arms around her torso and locked her in place so he could ravish each breast and start pumping again. Caroline's hands wrapped around the back of his neck, keeping him close, and it is was ridiculously easy for Klaus to get her to climax again. She began to tremble and when her walls clamped down on him, Klaus moaned and gritted his teeth. No, he was not done with her yet; Klaus refused to stop until he was literally too weak to even hold Caroline, much less make love to her.

Caroline gasped, trying to catch her breath, but she felt Klaus pull her up and readjust her legs so they were in front of her again in a more missionary position; the only difference being that he threw her legs up and over her shoulders. She knew right away that this was going to be a very, _very_ long night.

\m/ . \m/

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Thank you guys so much for all your words of support for this and for _Green Card_! You guys are the best! Hopefully I'll have Part 3 and Chapter 6 of _GC_ done soon, but I've got a lot going on, so it maybe be a while before I update either!

Thanks to my Google Doc gang: Christine (_melanoradrood_), Miranda (_livingdeadblondegirl_), Alex (_klarolineepiclove_; _authenticheart_), Leah (_approvesomuch_) and Chrizta (_channelmodern_) for beta-ing and giving me notes and fangirling! xo

And a special big thanks to Ashley (_jomosfamilyjewels_; _The Deej_) for making sure my writing is top notch and pushing me to be a better writer! :)

**Please R&R!**

_xo Becky_


	3. Part 3: She's All There Is

**Where Words Fail  
**A Klaroline One Shot  
_Part 3 of 3_

* * *

\m/ . \m/

Caroline slowly began to wake up and stretched her limbs like a cat waking from a short snooze. She started getting her bearings down and sleepily opened her eyes. She was confused, with the first thing she realized being that she was on the floor of a hotel room. Before she could wonder why, she heard a deep, sleepy groan behind her and she froze like a deer caught in the headlights.

Something moved on her waist and she glanced down without moving a muscle and realized that what had moved was a hand. A rough, calloused male hand was on her waist. That's when she remembered everything. The shots, the club, the dancing, the bathroom, the car, the elevator and the common factor they all shared:

Klaus Mikaelson.

She was lying on the floor of a hotel room, naked, next to Klaus Mikaelson.

Well, she was naked save for the sheet she was currently sharing with the sleeping rockstar beside her; and she had no doubt he was as naked as she.

She was lying on the floor of a hotel room because she'd given into her baser desires and let Klaus have her. And she slowly began to remember she didn't just let him have her; he had her every which way...and then some. In her defense, she also remembered having him just as often, if not more, but before she could ponder who had whom the most the previous night, Caroline glanced around and shot up into a sitting position next to Klaus, doing everything in her power not to scream.

The room was in a complete disarray: drawers pulled out of dressers, furniture tipped over, a lamp knocked over and leaning against a table in the corner, framed pictures on the wall askew, and one panel of curtains on the large window were hanging on the curtain rod with one ring. Immediately worrying that they had been robbed, she moved around and looked for her things, which were still in the hallway by the door where they had been left the night before. Caroline placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm her racing heart and considered the facts. Then that's when it occurred to her: the room hadn't been trashed by robbers while they were sleeping.

She and Klaus trashed the room. While having sex. They trashed the room while having sex.

She normally would've been filled with an overwhelming sense of pride at realizing this fact, but in this moment, knowing the man beside her was her accomplice, pride was the last thing she was feeling. They were touring together, and would be for the rest of the summer, and they'd scratched an itch they should've left alone. Although truthfully, Caroline didn't think Klaus had been that bad of a scratcher. No, he was very good at scratching that itch, yes he was...

The man in question suddenly shifted beside her and the hand that was on her chest trying to calm her racing heart flew from where it was to cover her mouth. She yanked part of the sheet off his body when she sat up, but soon she relaxed; it wasn't like her breathing would wake him.

He was lying on his stomach to her right, and the arm that had been around her waist had fallen to the floor between them. The sheet now barely covered his tight, firm ass that he'd had no qualms about digging her heels or nails into and she was suddenly captivated seeing the tattoo on his right shoulder. It was a simple, unfilled solid lined triangle and she found herself lightly tracing it with her fingers.

Her mind slipped back to their earlier activities and she suddenly remembered rough fingers gently tracing the tattoo on her own right shoulder. A small smile came to her face as she recalled not just fingertips gently tracing it, but lips too, as their owner took her from behind. She shivered remembering the intimate and gentle gesture while he'd been ravishing her and she snatched her hand away from his tattoo and reminded herself she shouldn't let herself get wrapped up in this.

She needed to go, and she needed to go now.

Doing the walk of shame out of the hotel and getting a cab back to her bus that was still at the stadium from the concert last night was seeming so much better than having to have the awkward "morning after" talk with Klaus.

He'd no doubt say that he was glad they got that out of their system, or worse, that they should do it again and keep it casual. After breaking things off with Tyler, Caroline really wasn't sure what she wanted, be it casual or serious or whatever. But she was more than happy to delay her talk with Klaus for however long she could manage.

Caroline carefully maneuvered herself out from under the sheet and tiptoed naked over to her scattered clothes, picked them up and rushed into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her. She looked sadly at her torn fishnets and made a mental note to get Bonnie to get another pair for her; taking it out of Klaus's budget of course.

It was only fair; he's the one that ripped them.

Once she was dressed, she took a deep breath and slowly opened the bathroom door, not sure what would be on the other side. She sighed when she peeked around the corner and saw that the slumbering rockstar was right where she left him. She tiptoed out, her shoes in one hand, her bra in the other, and her jacket over her arm and reached for the doorknob. Her hand was inches away when she suddenly heard the vibrating of a phone, and she froze. It was soft but loud enough that Klaus started to stir, and she quickly fumbled around in her pockets and took out her cellphone to silence it. Even though it had a few texts and calls from Bonnie and the girls, it was still on silent.

The vibrating continued and she realized that it must be his phone if hers wasn't ringing, so she quickly went to his things and searched for the phone before Klaus woke up. She found it finally in the pocket of his jacket, and she unlocked it so she could put it on silent as quickly as possible. 'Hayley - Moonlight' was lighting up the screen as the phone vibrated and Caroline quickly clicked the sleep button to silence the call, sending it to voicemail. She felt bad about it for a moment...until the phone went back to the home screen and showed the numerous texts from the same 'Hayley - Moonlight.'

She knew she shouldn't invade his privacy, it was bad enough already that she'd looked at his phone and sent a call to voicemail, but the girl that had just had a passionate and intimate night with a guy that claimed to 'fancy her' couldn't help herself. Caroline slid her finger across the screen and soon the texts were open for her to read for herself and she felt her heart drop into her stomach. This 'Hayley - Moonlight' had texted him over ten times that morning alone.

She and Klaus had also texted back and forth the day before and his texts had only stopped right before they went to the club. She felt her heart tossing and flopping around in her stomach as she continued to read the texts, that were not only flirtatious but familiar as well. Caroline's mind was blank as she pushed the sleep button again and instead of putting the phone back in his pocket, as she knew she should have, she padded over quietly to Klaus and put his phone next to his head. If he wanted to see Hayley, she wasn't about to stop him.

It wasn't like they were dating or anything.

Caroline slowly made her way to the door and quietly opened it, turned to look back at Klaus one last time sadly. He looked so peaceful as he lay there, deep asleep, and his arm outstretched to his side as if she were still there. She thought about going back and leaning down and waking him up by kissing his tattoo and trailing kisses up the back of his neck until she was kissing his face; he'd smile his dimpled smile and roll over and grab her and keep her straddling him and make some snarky comment about loving a woman on top. But the name of another woman flashing across the screen of his cell phone and familiar texts came to mind as she looked at the cell phone she'd placed down on the floor next to him, and she took a deep breath and closed the door quietly behind her.

\m/ . \m/

Klaus rolled over and grimaced as something smooth and hard hit his face. He slowly gained consciousness and realized he'd rolled over and was lying on top of his phone. His brow furrowed, not understanding how he could be lying on his phone, then he was even more confused because he was also lying on the floor of his hotel room. He got his bearings down as he also realized he was naked under the single sheet while on the floor. He grinned as he remembered the night before and the blonde that had made it so memorable.

He sat up on his elbows, stretched out on his stomach, and clicked the sleep button to turn his homescreen on and see what time it was. It wasn't even 10 yet, and they'd be leaving in the next couple of hours. He was surprised that Elijah hadn't called him or texted him or come in to wake him up as he so often did. He smirked to himself, thinking of Elijah's reaction to seeing not only his naked brother, but the equally naked blonde bombshell with him. Then Klaus frowned, realizing that the blonde in question wasn't there beside him on the floor.

He sat up fully, the sheet dropping from his hips, and frowned again, seeing that she wasn't in or on the bed. He could've sworn that after the...oh he couldn't remember how many times they'd gone at it, but it was probably the second or third time he'd taken her from behind that they'd ended up on the floor and just stayed there, spent. That's why the sheet was there, he'd pulled it from the bed with the remaining energy he had, knowing he didn't have enough to carry her and put her back on the bed. But he glanced up and saw that the bathroom door was closed, and a smile spread across his face.

As he padded, barefoot and naked, to the bathroom door, he glanced down and saw that while his clothes remained scattered on the floor, Caroline's clothes, the few that she'd been wearing, were gone. She was probably getting dressed and he smiled as he raised a hand to the door and knocked on it softly with the back of his knuckles. Maybe he could convince her to stay, get a little dirty again with some shower sex before they cleaned up, and get some room service?

"Caroline?" he called, knowing his voice would carry through the door. "Come now, love, no need to be bashful. You don't have anything I haven't seen before. And to be honest, yours are probably the loveliest I've seen." He paused and waited, expecting to hear some sort of witty retort, but after some silence, his brows furrowed again. "Oh come on, Caroline..." he said, turning the knob and opening the door, but he stopped cold when he stepped into the empty room. He stood, puzzled for a moment, then looked back around the room and found not a single trace of her. He looked back at his phone through his texts and calls and didn't see a single one from her. No text, no call, no note, no nothing.

She had left, no, she had _snuck out _without so much as a word.

Then his phone vibrated and he looked down at his hand quickly, and his face fell when a different name lit up his phone. Maybe he'd been wishful to think that she'd call him after sneaking out and not leaving him a note or text before she left, but the brunette on the other end of the line was the last person he wanted to talk to at this moment.

"Hayley," Klaus answered without greeting her, "this really isn't a good time for me right now," and he promptly hung up the phone. He didn't have time to deal with some escort he'd hooked up with a couple times.

He had a blonde to find.

\m/ . \m/

Caroline tipped the cabbie and made her way quickly back up to her bus. She needed a shower to wash away all the memories of the previous night and the man she'd spent it with as quickly as possible. She'd told herself as she stood in the elevator that this 'Hayley' was someone he knew before they met and, as she kept repeating to herself, she and Klaus weren't dating anyway.

But the word that had followed the girl's name kept nagging at her, even as she made her way to the lobby and had the concierge call her a taxi. Once she'd given the driver her destination, she leaned back against the seat and let her curiosity get the better of her again. She typed 'Moonlight' and the city into Google and she felt her heart flop around in her stomach again as the top result, "Moonlight Escort Service," came up on her phone.

Her finger tapped the link, even though her mind told her she'd regret it, and soon she was looking through the website, scrolling through the pages that described the different services offered, and then she found the page with a picture of each escort that worked for the company. She scrolled through, hesitantly, scanning through the names, seeing every 'ee' name, Whitney, Brittany, Courtney, Candi, Misty, Kristy, Ashley, Mandy...and then she saw it. She saw her.

_**Hayley**_. 24. Brunette. Green eyes. 5' 7¾" 34B. Been 'Moonlighting' since 2011.

Caroline gazed into her face and looked for something, but for what she wasn't sure. Did she expect the girl to have "Klaus's type" stamped across her forehead. She then began to remember the sweet nothings Klaus uttered in their moments of passion the night before, praising her eyes, her lips, her hair, her smile, her smooth skin, her long legs.

She felt disgusted knowing that she'd let herself fall for each and every compliment when he'd familiarized himself with the pouty lipped brunette that gazed back at her from the screen of her phone. She'd quickly thrust her phone back into her pocket, deciding to sweep the nagging feelings, just like her own for Klaus, under the rug and ignore them entirely. She made her way across the parking lot quickly and opened the bus door. She just needed to forget anything had ever happened with-

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!" Caroline exclaimed, slapping a hand over her eyes. Apparently, tight, firm asses ran in the Mikaelson family. It was just too early for her to be seeing Elijah's; actually Caroline would never be ready to see Elijah's ass, which was currently face up on her bed. Kat had never been one to share the covers, and apparently Elijah didn't mind too terribly.

"REALLY KAT?! AND ON _MY _BED?! _IN _MY BED?!"

At Caroline's first scream, Elijah and Katherine had jolted awake and now Katherine was moaning sleepily as Elijah cleared his throat and scrambled to put clothes on.

"Dear God, you are so fucking loud," Kat grumbled, rolling back over and putting the pillow over her head. "Like I've never walked in on you and a guy before. Get over yourself, Blondie."

"'You broke the golden rule of the bus, Kat: no sex in my bed unless it's me having the sex! Why would I want sex in my bed if I'm not even the one enjoying it?!" Caroline whined, with her hand still over her eyes.

She heard Elijah's belt jingling and through the space between her fingers she could see the man with his clothes haphazardly thrown on. She heard him clearing his throat and she knowingly moved to the side and finally dropped her hand. She still averted her eyes, not sure if she could look Elijah in the face after sleeping with his brother and walking in on him and her lead guitarist.

"Caroline," Elijah said, nodding respectfully towards her as he inched around her. Caroline merely waved at him once, awkwardly at that, and made a face to recognize his acknowledgement. "Katerina, I'll see you later," he added, turning back to the pile of blankets and pillows.

"Yes, hopefully in your bed next time," Caroline replied, walking him out and closing the bus doors behind him. Elijah glanced back at her on her remark, and as he turned back around she could've sworn she saw him smirk. That must run in the Mikaelson family too. Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose and slowly made her way back into the bus and stopped at the foot of her bed, peering down at the lump on the bed with her arms crossed.

"Don't give me that judgey look," Katherine's muffled voice came from under the mounds of fabric and down, and Caroline shook her head.

"So it's 'Katerina' is it? I thought you haven't been Katerina since you and your family defected to the US from Bulgaria nearly 20 years ago..."

"What do you care what Elijah calls me? It's my name, not yours," Katherine snapped, not moving from underneath her barricade of blankets and pillows.

"You're right, I shouldn't be judging you as much," Caroline said, taking off her jacket and tossing it on one of the benches that should've been turned into Kat's bed. "I had expected more of Elijah though. I can't believe that he took advantage of you like that..."

"HE DIDN'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!" Katherine suddenly shot up from beneath the blankets and pillows, sending them flying in different directions, and Caroline rolled her eyes as she gave her friend the courtesy of not staring at her as one of her boobs hung out of her black lacy bra.

"You were hopped up on pain meds and a single glass of champagne," Caroline added, leaning into the small bathroom to turn the shower on to get the water warming up. "If it wasn't taking advantage of you, then it was irresponsible, to say the least..."

"If anyone was taking advantage of anyone, it was me taking advantage of him!" Katherine insisted, and Caroline paused a moment to give her friend's declaration some thought.

Normally, she'd believe her, no questions asked. Katherine was one of the boldest, most determined people Caroline had ever known, if not _the _boldest and most determined, and if Katherine said she did something, she had and she meant it. But the fact of the matter was, her judgement had been compromised, and the fierce brunette couldn't argue with that. She'd been loaded before the toast, having taken God knows how many pain meds, and then she'd had a glass of champagne on top of that.

Caroline typically wouldn't believe that 6 or 7 oz of alcohol would be enough to affect her friend, considering Kat was normally dancing on the bar with a half empty bottle of whiskey in her hand with the other half of the bottle in her stomach. But they had no idea how many pain pills Kat had taken, and the combination of her meds and champagne had brought her to a screeching halt pretty quickly last night.

"Do tell," Caroline said, leaning against the wall near the bathroom door, crossing her arms and peering down at the brunette who was giving her a haughty look. "I'd love to hear how Elijah brought you back to the bus when you were drunk off of pain pills and champagne and _didn't _take advantage of you by sleeping with you."

"It wasn't like that at all, Care," Katherine said, half sadly and half stubbornly, and the sadness in her voice made Caroline soften a bit. "Elijah is every bit the gentleman he was yesterday, and then some." The brunette sighed, dragged a hand through her long, tangled brown locks and chuckled to herself as she glanced down and tucked her stray boob back in her bra.

"He helped Bonnie bring me back last night, and I vaguely remember him and Bonnie hanging out, periodically making me drink water, and I fell asleep for a bit. When I woke back up, Bonnie was gone, Elijah was on your laptop doing work and he said that he'd sent her to her room to get some sleep, and he made me drink, like, two full water bottles and a Vitamin Water. But I was still really sleepy, so I fell asleep again.

"I woke up an hour or two later and after peeing my entire bladder out for longer than I've ever peed in my entire life, I was 100% again. I was clear and sober. And I came back in and saw him sitting there; he'd fallen asleep sitting up beside me. He hadn't left, even though I'd had enough liquids to flush out a horse tranquilizer..."

Caroline snorted at her friends hyperbole, but Katherine kept confessing the events of the previous night.

"And I just did what I instinctively wanted to do; I climbed right on top of him and started kissing him and trying to take his clothes off..."

Caroline snorted again and covered her eyes again.

"Christ, Kat...why am I not surprised?"

"What can I say? I'm a needy sociopath desperate for love and human connection! I'm sorry!" she retorted defensively and crossed her arms over her chest. "And you know what he did when he woke up and I was on top of him, my fingers unbuttoning his Calvin Klein dress shirt and my tongue down his throat?"

"Rocked your world?" Caroline guessed. "And not in the musical sense, but...you know."

"No, he didn't actually!" Kat replied quickly, "He actually pushed me off of him!"

"He resisted the Petrova charm?" Caroline said, sounding both shocked and impressed. "Wow...if I hadn't been greeted by his full moon, I'd wonder if he's gay..."

"That was the first thing I thought!" Kat said, obviously relieved that she hadn't been strange to wonder the very same, and continued, "And I asked him if he was and told him that he didn't have to be ashamed of it, and Jesus, Caroline, you should have seen his face..." Katherine trailed off and slowly devolved into a fit of laughter.

"Once he assured me of his sexual orientation," Kat suddenly donned what Caroline could only guess was her interpretation of an Elijah expression and she dropped her voice to sound closer to Elijah's octave, "'straight as straight can be,'" and Caroline couldn't help but laugh with her friend before Kat continued, "he told me that 'while he found me immensely attractive, he couldn't, in good faith, be intimate with me while my judgement was impaired.'"

"Wow," Caroline said.

"I know."

"But you were sobered up?"

"Uh huh," the brunette nodded, "and even though I swore I was, he still didn't believe me and I accused him of not trusting me, and you know what he said?" Caroline shook her head, and the smallest smile spread across Katherine's face, and she quietly replied, "'You're right, I don't trust you. But I'd love for you to prove me wrong and win my trust'..."

"Aww," Caroline couldn't help the endearing sound that escaped her throat, and Kat only made it worse by blushing and casting her eyes down in embarrassment. "Kat...you really like him, don't you?"

"More than I'd ever allow myself to like someone..." Katherine admitted reluctantly after a moment of silence, her feet dangling off the edge of the bed and kicking the floor aimlessly. "And so I took it upon myself to prove just how sober I was and for the next two hours, we ate Chinese take out and watched _Keeping Up With the Kardashians_ reruns..."

"Really?"

"Yup," she said simply, and she finally brought her gaze up to Caroline's and grinned impishly, "it was after the third rerun that I knew he really liked me. The only thing funnier than his face when asked if he was into dudes was his face watching those trainwrecks..." The girls laughed together and when their laughter died down, Kat spoke again, her gaze focused on her hands.

"Then...it just happened," she said softly. "It was completely unplanned, and it just _happened_," she repeated. "He didn't make the first move, I didn't make the first move; we just sort of...moved together." She had a goofy, romantic smile on her face, and she continued, "He was so tender and sweet and attentive and...oh my god, he has the most perfect dick I've ever had the pleasure of fucking..."

"Aaaaaaaand that would be my cue, exit stage left," Caroline muttered, crossing and grabbing a fresh set of towels out of the cupboard.

"Wait, what about you?! How was your night?" Katherine continued, quirking an eyebrow and sneering at Caroline knowingly. "You look thoroughly fucked." Caroline made a noise somewhere between a squeak and a gasp and Katherine grinned and chuckled to herself. "Yeah, I knew Klaus would get something better than a bottle of whiskey."

"I'm not talking about this with you right now, I'm showering."

"Oh yeah? Sounds like I'm not the only one that was a dirty, _dirty_ girl..."

"Can't hear you!" Caroline said as she closed the door and shouted.

"I knew it! The second I read those texts from Anna asking if you were back and if Klaus was with you, I knew you fucked him! You bitch! And you come in here acting all high and mighty about Elijah's sweet ass in bed with me!" Katherine said, leaning over and pounding her hand against the bathroom door as she yelled to her.

Caroline simply ignored her and ducked into the stream of water when she'd stripped off the rest of her clothes and kicked off her boots. She heard the low murmur of Kat grumbling something, but she just focused on how good the warm beads of water felt rushing over her head and face and down her body. She took a deep breath and could already start to feel the tension in her body lessen and she reached for her bottle of shampoo. She squeezed more than was needed, filling her palm, and began to lather her hair, washing all the dirt and sweat out of it from the show and the club...and her other activities. She pushed the memory out of her mind and rinsed her hair and worked conditioner into her hand carefully working from the ends up.

As the smell of peppermint, sage, and rosemary in her conditioner filled her senses, her mind wandered and she couldn't help but think of a more musky male scent that had turned her on so unbelievably. She absentmindedly squeezed some shower gel onto her loofa and as the rough mesh exfoliated her skin, the memory of rough skin sliding along her softer skin came to mind. Caroline felt her breathing becoming deeper and she got goosebumps as she remembered the two rough hands touching her with such gentleness, like they were scanning her body and committing the feeling of her skin to memory.

_One of her hands slid down her torso as the other moved to her breast, both of her hands joining his as she leaned her head back against his shoulder. She turned her face towards his and he pressed his lips to her temple, taking her from behind and gently moving her leg up and placing it on the edge of one of the open dresser drawers. She moaned as she felt him move even deeper and her hand that accompanied his on her breast went and buried itself into his curls._

_He growled as she tugged his curls, but her moan drowned it out as he continued to thrust into her more forcefully, though his steady pace never faltered. His lips trailed kisses down from her temple down her jaw, his one hand teasing her nipple while the other teased the bundle of nerves at the junction of her thighs, and she-_

"Caroline?!" Bonnie's voice came through the door after two short knocks and Caroline jerked back into reality and couldn't believe she'd let herself get so wrapped up in memories from last night. She also couldn't believe where her one hand was before Bonnie had snapped her out of her reminiscing. What the hell was wrong with her?! She was Caroline Forbes: rock 'n roll princess and all around badass. She didn't reminisce about past conquests and touch herself in the shower, especially not with playboy rock star conquests.

And that's all he was to her: a conquest.

A really good looking, charismatic, accented conquest, she told herself, and nothing more. Even when Kat's phrase, "the most perfect dick I've ever had the pleasure of fucking" came to mind.

Bonnie knocked again on the door and added, "Kat just left, but she told me all about her and Elijah...and you and Klaus." Damn that Petrova bitch. Caroline made a mental note to punch her guitarist in the boob at the next available moment.

"Come on, Caroline, you can't hide in there forever."

_Wanna bet? _Caroline thought to herself.

"...I've got coffee."

Damn. Bonnie knew that coffee was Caroline's kryptonite and had undauntedly whipped out the big guns right off the bat. She gave the girl credit, she knew not only how to handle herself but how to handle others. It was a wonder she kept it together all the time.

"I'll be out in five," Caroline finally replied back reluctantly. Fifteen minutes later, once Caroline had thoroughly cleaned herself every which way, she exited the bathroom, a large fluffy towel wrapped around her slightly dewy body and her hair wrapped up in one on top of her head like a turban. Bonnie sat on one of the benches with her legs up on the seat and her laptop on her lap, typing away and occasionally pausing to sip from her cup of coffee.

"Yours is on the other counter," Bonnie said knowingly, sensing that Caroline was there even though her back was to her, and she kept typing.

"Thanks," Caroline said, reaching for it and sipping quietly. The silence made Bonnie turn to look at Caroline as the blonde sat down on the opposite bench.

"I got you the usual, a double capp with a shot of french vanilla and two sugars, would you've preferred something else? I got a salted caramel mocha if you want mine-"

"No, no, the coffee's fine, Bon, thank you..." Caroline shook her head and waved her hand at her friend to let her know the coffee wasn't a problem. Bonnie watched her for a moment before turning and continuing typing on the computer. Caroline would open up sooner or later, and she wasn't going to force her to open up unless she wanted to and Bonnie knew her friend too well. After only a few moments of silence, Bonnie heard her friend sigh quietly.

"I let myself fall for him," Caroline said quietly, and Bonnie turned to her, and she added, "but it was fantastic, Bonnie. I've...I've never felt so alive. Every synapse was firing, every sense was on fire...but I knew it was a path I shouldn't have gone down. And to make it even worse, I saw his phone and some girl was calling him and texting him..." Bonnie straightened a bit, hearing how her friend's voice got more strained, and she carefully closed her laptop and put it down on the seat beside her.

"A girl?" Bonnie asked, facing Caroline and resting her elbows on her knees and clasping her hands.

Caroline nodded, her lips pressed tightly together and scrunched to the side of her face, her indicator that she was trying to hold tears back. Caroline was always good at keeping her composure in front of others, but Bonnie was a whole different story. Caroline and Bonnie had clicked instantly, and even though Bonnie could read her like a book and break down her walls easily, Caroline always folded like a napkin in front of her. It was just something about Bonnie that melted away all of Caroline's masks and walls and she'd feel the need to just openly and honestly talk to her.

"His favorite escort at 'Moonlight Escort Service' that he talks to more like a friend than an escort," Caroline said, her voice trembling a bit.

"Is that what you're upset about? How intimate and friendly he is with some escort, versus the fact that he even uses escorts?" Bonnie asked.

"Please, he's a rockstar," Caroline chuckled wryly, taking a deep breath and keeping her tears at bay, "I'd wonder what his vice was if he didn't have an escort service on speed dial...It'd probably be the nearest casino manager's phone number instead of his brunette escort BFF..."

"True," Bonnie nodded, "and honestly, I'd rather get involved with an alcoholic sex addict over an alcoholic gambler anyday!" Caroline laughed and Bonnie smiled, happy to hear the sound. "Okay, we need an excessive amount of breakfast food, so you go get dressed and I'm going to make a food run and I'll be back, okay?"

Caroline nodded as Bonnie touched her knee supportively before grabbing her purse and exiting the bus. Caroline went to the back of the bus and looked through her drawers until she opened her closet and began flipping through her hangers before settling on one of her favorite dresses, a black Pearl Georgina Chapman for Marchesa dress covered in little stars with a hot pink ribbon around the waist that tied in the back. Typically if Caroline was feeling down, she'd dress up and make herself up in an attempt to brighten her spirits and it usually worked. Once she was dressed, she blow dried her hair before she flat ironed it and she was nearly done with her makeup when she heard the bus door open again.

"Okay, I know you said you were getting a smorgasbord, but I really hope you got waffles, because now I'm craving one something awful," Caroline said, her face still inches away from the mirror as she finished sweeping the mascara wand through her eyelashes. She tossed it back in her makeup bag on the small sink counter and turned and padded out barefoot to the kitchen area. When she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"I'm sorry, I was told you were more of pancake person, and I know a place that makes the most delicious blueberry ones you've ever tasted..." the accented voice replied and the dimpled smirk that accompanied it made Caroline's heart clench and her stomach twist into knots.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked, proud of herself for sounding cool and standoffish even though that was far from how she felt.

\m/ . \m/

Klaus closed the door of the town car that had picked him up at the hotel and strode through the parking lot quickly. He was frustrated because some imbeciles with stadium security had said that the town car didn't have clearance to go to the back parking lot where Caroline's tour bus was located, so he had to ditch the car at the front and walk the rest of the way there.

He was nearly to the other side of the stadium when his phone trilled in his pocket again, but steadily and he knew he had a phone call versus a text. He took out his phone and growled as he hit the talk button and pressed it to his ear.

"I got your 50 million texts and typically if a phone rings for the normal allotted time before going to voicemail, that typically means the person in question's phone is on, otherwise it would've gone straight to voicemail had it been off. So what part of my non-responsiveness, be it via texts or calling, did you not understand as me letting you know I had no interest in talking to you, Hayley?"

"Sue me, I thought you were playing hard to get," the alto of the brunette's voice replied into Klaus's ear and he sneered.

"If I were playing a game, trust me, you'd know it."

"Yeah well, after you blew me off last night, luckily I got a call from the agency about a pro-football player that was feeling kinda lonely and could use a pick me up, so I wasn't all by my lonesome..." Klaus rolled his eyes and had every sense to just hang up on her until she added, "But you were right; he lacked your... stamina." Klaus chuckled once to himself then sighed like a parent about to tell their child it was time to take the training wheels off their bicycle.

"Well, Hayley, as much as that would've delighted me to hear in the past, hell as much as that would've delighted me to hear _yesterday_, suffice it to say I'll no longer be in need of your services." He pulled the phone away from his ear but he heard her screech even though the phone was away from his face.

"Excuse me?!" He stopped in the parking lot, looking around to make sure he didn't get pegged by a car, and brought the phone back to his ear.

"Did you suffer a head injury while your football player was _running into your endzone_? I said, 'I'm no longer in need of your services,' which loosely translates into, 'Goodbye, Hayley.'"

"Are you serious? What are you going to a different escort service or something? Because let me tell you, 'Bewitching Beauties' is not a classy as they seem. They kind of operate like a cult-"

"Yes, I'm serious," Klaus started, cutting her off out of annoyance and anger, pinching the bridge of his nose before adding, "And no, I'm not going to a different escort service." He glanced over and could see Caroline's bus a short distance away and smiled to himself. "I don't need escorts anymore. I've found something better." His smile slipped from his face as he heard her begin to laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, I see... Mr. Big Bad Rockstar's got a crush. Who's the unlucky victim?"

"None of your goddamn business" Klaus started, his voice dropping lower. He tried to control his anger and not shout into the phone at this dumb slut. She had some nerve to laugh at him after she'd spent the better part of her evening and morning calling and texting him excessively.

"You listen to me and you listen well, Hayley: this is the last time that you and I will ever interact, and should you ever contact me again, I will take it up with your escort service. Not only will I make sure they fire you, I will make sure that you won't be hired by an escort service within a 100 mile radius. If you think I won't, I dare you to pick up the latest copy of _People_ or _The New Yorker_ and flip through it and consider how many famous and powerful friends I have in just a single issue that probably already use escort services. I'm sure Moonlight would be more than happy to get rid of one hooker that stalks her clients rather than lose countless current and possible clients." He paused only a moment to take a breath, but Hayley made no attempt to interrupt him in any case.

"And before you try and suggest that you can go to the tabloids and start spouting off how I'm head over heels for some girl and I'm no longer the badass that I was in the past, let me just remind you that after you get off of the phone with one such tabloid, you might be getting a knock on your door and the next thing you know, you'll have silver cuffs around your slender wrists, and they won't be attached to a bedpost. No, they'll be attached to the partition of a squad car as police bring you in for prostitution. Police are just as capable of getting anonymous tips as tabloids, _love_," he sneered as he emphasized his sarcastic use of the endearment, the first time he'd even used it during their conversation, and paused to let everything he said sink in for a moment. "Do you understand me clearly now?" There was a longer pause before Klaus heard her reply.

"Yes."

"Good, I'm glad. Goodbye, Hayley," Klaus said with finality before hanging up the phone and striding towards the bus, knowing what he wanted more clearly than he ever had in his entire life. Just as he was a few yards away, he saw Bonnie step around the front of the bus as if she'd just exited the bus and she was looking at her phone. When he was a little closer, he called to her softly, "Hey, Bonnie!"

She looked up and gave him what may have been one of the dirtiest looks he'd received in his entire life, and he'd received numerous and varied ones so he gave her credit, and she began to walk faster towards him. But he quickly realized she was walking past him, not towards him.

"Hey yourself, you jackass..." she muttered as she brushed past him.

"Excuse me?" he said, surprised, and turned and followed her, wondering what the hell was going on. "Who pissed in your coffee, love?"

"You did, when you slept with my best friend," she replied, not looking up from her phone.

"Not that that's any of your business, but that was a mutual decision," he said, finding himself getting more pissed himself from her tone and how she refused to look at him and kept walking. "Where's Caroline?" His question made Bonnie stop and flip around to him quickly and he nearly walked right into her.

"You may be her headlining act, but that doesn't make her your slam piece, Klaus," Bonnie said calmly but with a hint of anger and defensiveness in her voice. "She's not a plaything for you to just screw around with when you feel like it or if something better doesn't come along, although truthfully, she's the best you're ever going to have, so the notion of 'something better coming along' is a longshot, even for you."

"Of course she's not a plaything, I don't think that of her! Besides, she's the one that snuck out on me this morning-" Klaus started to defend himself when he paused and thought about what Bonnie had said again and he took a step back. "Hang on a tick. What do you mean 'if something better doesn't come along'?"

"I know you got Caroline in your bed for free, but you deserve meaningless, no strings attached _bought_ sex, not someone as wonderful and caring and amazing as Caroline..." Bonnie started scolding Klaus and defending her friend, but Klaus stopped her by gently grabbing her arms.

"Bonnie!" he said, stopping her and she stopped but only to grit her teeth and shoot him an angry glare. "She snuck out on me this morning," he repeated, "and for me, there's only her." Bonnie regarded him silently, and after a minute of her not responding to his confession he decided to elaborate.

"There's no one else. The moment she strutted up on that stage, she turned my world upside down; I was a goner. And she's more than wonderful and caring and amazing; she's beautiful and strong and good and passionate and enthralling and never have I wanted anyone or anything more in my life. But just as much as I want her, I want to be worthy of her. Please tell me what I can do to deserve her, Bonnie, and I'll gladly do it. She's all there is for me, and I'll wait, I'll wait however long it takes to earn her love, because she's all there is for me."

Bonnie regarded him warily the entire time he spoke, but by the time he finished, she had seemingly softened and she glanced down at her phone again, sighed then looked back up at him.

"You're going to need food. And by food, I mean a smorgasbord of breakfast foods. She's allergic to strawberries, she eats her scrambled eggs with cheese _and_ ketchup, and she really likes pancakes." Klaus smiled at the young woman, his dimpled grin reaching from ear to ear. She gave him the smallest smile but her face quickly became serious and she pointed a finger in his face. "Don't make me regret this. Believe me, the one place you don't want to be is on my bad side...Which is where you'll be if you screw around with my best friend."

"Sounds fair."

"Just think of the worst migraine of your entire life...now multiply that tenfold. You'll be begging me to put you out of your misery."

"Understood."

"Good," Bonnie said with a sense of finality. Then, Klaus literally watched her take off her best friend hat and don her business hat and she said, "Well then, I'm going to call the town car to go get chilaquiles from a hole in the wall place the girls and I always go. Maybe if we divide and conquer we can get this smorgasbord together in half the time of you just going solo."

"Fantastic. I know a place that makes delicious blueberry pancakes..."

\m/ . \m/

"A little bird told me that you were in need of 'a smorgasbord of breakfast foods,'" he said, holding up the brown bags he held in his hand, "so I've brought my favorites from all my favorite local restaurants: blueberry pancakes, cinnamon rolls, assorted bagels and spreads, bacon, sausages, chilaquiles, hash browns, chocolate croissants, fresh fruit-" he paused and glanced at her seriously, "no strawberries-and I also brought orange juice, apple juice and more coffee," he finished, holding up the drink caddy with four cups in his right hand. He set the drinks down on the counter before he set the bag down on the nearby bench and began taking out the containers of food.

"I didn't ask what you'd brought with you," Caroline said, crossing her arms across her chest, not moving from where she stood even though the smell of the food was filling the bus and making her mouth water. "I asked why you were here."

"I'm here to eat a smorgasbord of breakfast food with you," Klaus restated as if it were obvious and he continued to unpack the to-go boxes.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" she finally asked quietly, but Klaus kept unpacking the food, and as he reached into the bag for the last box, she asked, "I mean, don't you have _someone else_ to be _with_?" That question finally made Klaus pause, and when he finally looked up at her, she forced herself to ask the question that she was shouting in her head. "What about Hayley?" He gazed at her for a while and she gazed back, even though all she wanted to do was look away and cry or look away to grab the nearest object to throw at him and shout at him to leave. She didn't expect him to answer with a question, and it nearly knocked her on her ass.

"Hayley who?"

She opened her mouth after a second to respond, but she looked at his face and she was stunned and no words came out. Had she not been looking at his face, his response may have been seen as a pathetic attempt at playing stupid or dancing around the subject. She could see, however, that clearly was not the case. She read a million and one sentiments, thoughts and emotions in his expression, but after she heard his voice and looked at him, she realized that instead, it was as if he'd replied, 'I'm attracted to you, and I've done some terrible things in the past, but for some reason, I care only about you.'

The fierce honesty in his voice and the look he was giving her nearly took her breath away. She had gotten sentimental that morning, watching him sleep, but she never dreamed that he'd have real, deep feelings for her. Yes he talked a big game last night, but she'd thought that surely that was all for the sake of the conquest and that once he woke up, his lust satiated, he'd be through with her. That or he'd only want to hook up, and Caroline didn't know if she was prepared for that. She was beginning to realize that was the thing: she hadn't been prepared for Klaus in any sense.

He watched the emotions and conflict flit around her face before he smiled and reached back into the bag and pulled out the last container.

"Scrambled eggs?" he smiled but then raised his eyebrows and gave her a saucy smirk as if to entice her with them. "They've got cheese..." Caroline chuckled and he chuckled along with her and she glanced away and he gazed at her softly with a smile and she finally looked back up at him and returned his smile. In less than a second, however it slipped from her face, and he furrowed his brow before she spoke.

"I'm not even touching those unless you have-"

"Ketchup?" he asked with a quirk of his eyebrow and he opened the lid to the box and revealed a heaping amount of cheesy eggs with at least two handfuls of ketchup packets tucked in, "Of course I have ketchup." Caroline gazed at the contents of the box amazedly, and looked back up at him and gave him a shy, sweet smile. She knew he had to have asked Bonnie, or she had to have told him, but she didn't care either way; they were both so sweet and the fact that he paid that much attention to detail really touched her.

"Well, I guess this food's not going to eat itself," Caroline said quietly with a smile. She got silverware for them and divvied out the rest her silverware amongst the boxes to use as serving spoons and they each put food on their plates and sat down and began eating in comfortable silence, both with smiles on their faces.

The silence was broken when Klaus's phone rang, and Caroline couldn't help but stiffen at the thought of it being "Hayley - Moonlighting' calling again. But he reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone and smirked and rolled his eyes when he saw the name on the screen.

"Excuse me, love," he said, "my nanny's calling." He hit the send button and pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello, Elijah," he smirked when he heard Caroline laugh, "how are you this morning? I doubt you had as splendid a night as I had..."

Caroline began to cough as she choked on her eggs since she'd huffed them in surprise. He still had no idea about his brother and Katherine, and Caroline did her best to dislodge the food trapped in her windpipe to tell him. He had paused and looked concerned but she waved his hands away since he'd quickly put his plate down and stood up to cross to her. She reached over and grabbed the travel cup of orange juice and took a big gulp. She took a relieved breath but before she could tell him, he was back listening to Elijah.

"What? No I'm fine, Caroline just had a moment with her eggs, I believe they just went down the wrong tube...yes, I'm with her right now, how else would I know that Caroline was choking on scrambled eggs?" he replied sounding annoyed, as if Elijah had asked the dumbest question. "I brought her some food and we're enjoying ourselves a little breakfast buffet of sorts," he added, winking at her.

"No, that would be correct. We would not be interested in joining you for breakf-wait, what do you mean 'us'?!" Klaus turned to Caroline, who'd been waving her hands to get his attention. Still with the phone pressed to his ear, he looked at Caroline and mouthed, 'What is going on?' and Caroline pointed to the phone pressed to his ear and mouthed, 'Elijah' and Klaus nodded in recognition, and then Caroline thought for a moment before she mimed strumming a guitar and mouthed, 'and Katherine' and Klaus watched her for a moment before he realized she was referring to her lead guitarist that he'd substituted for the previous night.

He nodded and mouthed back, 'Katherine?' and Caroline nodded and repeated her motions of pointing to his phone then strumming an invisible guitar while mouthing, 'Elijah and Katherine,' and then she silently balled up both her fists and pulled them towards herself at waist height and repeated the gesture while thrusting her hips back and forth at the same time. Klaus's jaw dropped and he mouthed, 'No,' and Caroline merely responded with a smug smile and knowing nod.

A devilish smirk spread across Klaus's face as Elijah apparently danced around the explanation of the 'us' he'd meant, and Klaus immediately jumped back into his phone call.

"Well well well, brother," he said, his smugness coming through in his voice and Caroline rolled her eyes with a smile as she went back to her food and started opening more ketchup packets to put on her eggs.

"It would seem that I'm not the only one that had the pleasure of a young woman's company last night. Sounds like Kat really got her claws into you if you're having breakfast at such a hole in the wall establishment, regardless of how good their brunch might be," Klaus said, reaching into the mixed fruit and popping a piece of pineapple into his mouth and chewing it for a second before talking with the food in his mouth, and no doubt pissing off Elijah. "I applaud her for getting you into a restaurant that doesn't have place settings. And as much as Caroline and I would love to join you both, the lovely blonde said it herself, this food I brought her 'isn't going to eat itself,' but perhaps another time." He glanced up at Caroline and smiled rakishly and she smiled back at him and rolled her eyes, chewing thoughtfully on a bite of eggs.

"Well if it's alright with her majesty, The Princess of Rock, I'll just stay here and travel with her to the next venue. Yes, we're in her bus. Well no, I'm not going to sleep with her on the bus if you did the nasty with Kat on her bed...No, she didn't tell me that, it was a lucky guess, and a correct one judging by your response and the look of disgust and horror on Caroline's face right now."

He chuckled as Caroline put her plate down on the opposite counter and crossed back to her bed and got new sheets and pillowcases out of the closet. He watched her with a smirk as she quickly changed the sheets without touching them as carefully as she could. She threw the sheets into a giant hamper in the bottom of her closet with a sound of disgust. He placed his own plate down then stood to close the boxes and stacked some of them.

"Please, Elijah, I'm sure Caroline would accept dry cleaning her sheets as a sufficient enough apology for having sex in her bed," he replied. But then he heard Caroline make a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan, so he added, "Actually, maybe you'll want to pick up some new bedding before you see Caroline. I'm sure she'd appreciate 1200 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, even though I'd appreciate silk ones if I'm going to be spending any time in them-" Klaus said, but stopped when he felt something hit the side of his face, neck and shoulder.

He turned and saw a pillow on the floor and Caroline looking at him with what he surmised was intended to be an angry face. She failed to convey the sentiment, however, since her expression was twisted from trying not to smile and her face was flushed in a lovely and embarrassed shade of red. He stared at her seriously for a moment before turning back to his call.

"Sorry, Elijah, I've got to go; war has been declared," he said flatly and he hung up the phone and put it down on the counter next to the food before reaching down and taking hold of the pillow at his feet. Caroline squealed and scrambled up on the bed to grab the other pillow as Klaus slowly stalked after her, a grin slowly spreading on his face as he wound up his arm with her pillow in his hands.

\m/ . \m/

* * *

**Author's Note:**  
So? What do you guys think? :D Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought about this chapter!

And never fear, friends, the fun's not over yet... ;)

I intended for there to be a _short_ epilogue at the end of this section, but as always, I was far too overcome with Klaroline inspiration so now this will be a 3 part one shot with a separate epilogue.

Also, I might be publishing a surprise to accompany it on my tumblr page, so I'll let you know when I post the new chapter where and how you can find the surprise! ;D

Special thanks to my Google Doc Gals (who put up with my excessively long chapters): **Miranda** (_livingdeadblondegirl_), **Alex** (_klarolineepiclove_; _authenticheart_) and **Deej** (_jomosfamilyjewels_; _The Deej_)

**_Klaroline hugs, kisses, and cheesy scrambled eggs with ketchup,_**  
**_Becky xo_**


	4. Epilogue: Eyes For You

**Where Words Fail  
**A Klaroline One Shot  
_Epilogue_

* * *

\m/ . \m/ _Eyes For You_ \m/ . \m/

_**Four Months Later...**_

Klaus hummed softly to himself as he drew in his sketchbook, his pencil moved across the paper lightly, pausing every now and again to make detailed notes in the margins before dancing across the page lightly again. He paused a moment to set it down and pick up his acoustic guitar and he strummed a few chords, shook his head at himself, rearranged the chord combination, then smiled before picking up his notes again and erasing something and writing down something else. He set the book down again and kept playing. Finally the sleeping blonde beside him started to stir.

"Good afternoon," he murmured with a smirk, "I was starting to get worried that you were in a sex coma." Caroline chuckled sleepily as she stretched and woke up more and more. She was still naked but swaddled in the king sized hotel bed sheets, and it was one of Klaus's favorite looks for her.

"Oh please, if I haven't blacked out during sex yet, then you're never going to put me in a sex coma," she said, turning on her side and peering up at him.

"Well, then...I take that as a challenge."

"I'll tell you what you can take," she purred, leaning up and biting his earlobe before pushing his guitar out of his hands and to the side to straddle him, the sheet that was wrapped around her falling to her waist, exposing her breasts, as she pinned his hands on either side of his body.

"I'm listening," Klaus replied, trying to sound nonchalant, even though the urge to wrestle his hands out of her grasp, taking both of her glorious breasts and teasing them with his hands and mouth, made it difficult for him to keep up the mask of disinterest.

"You can take me now, then we can go to the Waffle House and get breakfast..." she began, murmuring as she kissed down his neck, as she kissed down his neck along the strings of necklaces that he always wore. Her lips were uninhibited from caressing his skin as he sat before her shirtless, only in a pair of dark wash jeans.

"It's 2 o'clock, love."

Caroline froze then sat up and stared at him incredulously as if he'd said a purple pig with wings had just flown past the window.

"So? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but I mean-" Klaus started to say but when he looked into Caroline's face for a moment, he said, "Anyway, what was option number two?"

"Option number two," Caroline continued, after giving him a knowing grin, "is you keep writing the song you've been working on when you think I don't notice while I cook us half an English breakfast since someone used up the rest of the mushrooms in the risotto he made-"

"I don't recall you complaining about it while you scarfed down said mushroom risotto," he replied, leaning up to kiss her chin and along her jaw, moving up towards her ear. "Besides, this option, although it involves part of an English breakfast, is sounding less appealing with the lack of sex involved-" Klaus was suddenly falling back against the pillows and headboard, Caroline's hand firmly planted on his chest from pushing him back.

"Well you didn't let me finish," Caroline said, her voice husky and authoritative as she gazed at him intently. A murmur of a growl rumbled in Klaus's chest and she smiled evilly at him.

"After breakfast, you play what you have written so far for me, and then, overwhelmed with emotion and desire from hearing you play it, I'll have my way with you until you fill this entire suite with sheet music." She delivered the speech calmly and coolly, like she was explaining how to tie his shoes, as she kissed down his torso, stopping at his belly button. He groaned, his hands still unable to touch her as her own pinned them to the bed. She chuckled and moved up a bit and rested her chin on his abdomen. "I know, I know...decisions, decisions."

"You know I don't like playing my songs for people until they're done, love," he groaned, like a petulant child. "I will not have my hand forced by you or...anyone...else..." he trailed off, moaning as he tried to keep his resolve, which was proving to be more and more difficult as she started kissing his abdomen again, making another head of his throb just as much as the one on his neck. "Ugh, now you're just playing dirty..."

"I learned from the best," she murmured, her lips still pressed to his skin, and she giggled as he growled and pulled her up to him and spun them, gaining the upper hand, and was on top of her.

"Well then, maybe we should see if the student has surpassed her teacher," he growled low in his throat and his lips went to her neck and she moaned and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"So you're going with option number 1, then?" she said and he stopped and sighed and let his head drop, burying into her tousled curls.

"I still don't understand this fascination with Waffle House."

"Um, hello, it's delicious!" she said defensively, and she grinned when she heard another disgruntled sigh from beneath her hair. "And you can get steak and eggs!"

"Half an English breakfast sounds better than steak and eggs," he whined and she scoffed.

"Maybe for you! I'm a growing girl, I need my protein!" she said and he brought his head up to look at her and shook his head subtly.

"You're so incorrigible," he murmured and pecked her nose with a kiss and she smiled and squirmed away as if his kiss had given her cooties.

"When it comes to breakfast, you bet your ass I am!"

"Oh, betting my ass?" he replied, his eyebrows raising and a smirk on his lips, and he began to tickle her and try and pinch her butt. "Oh, my ass...right, let's well let's see about _yours_..." Caroline squealed and squirmed and fought him off as best as she could.

"Stop! Stop it, you big bully!" she shrieked, half yelling and half laughing as he tickled all the spots he knew would drive her up the wall. "What would _Rolling Stone_ say?" she said, gasping her words out as she laughed and tried her damnedest to get out of his grasp. "'Klaus Mikaelson, the Big Bad Wolf of Rock 'n Roll, ends arguments by tickle fight'?" she quoted the made up headline and he grinned at her.

"I should ask you the same thing? What would _Rolling Stone_ say, knowing that Caroline Forbes, Bad Ass Rock Princess, is more ticklish than a silly schoolgirl."

"I'm ticklish in or out of my schoolgirl uniform," Caroline replied, finally fighting him off enough to catch her breath, "and if you ever want to see me in that schoolgirl uniform again, you may want to consider a ceasefire." Klaus froze, his hands still locked with hers, and he squinted his eyes.

"Well played, General Forbes...well played," he murmured, trying to act disappointed or angry, "but I refuse to eat any of the various items on the Waffle House menu, nor will I play the song for you until it's ready."

"Well then, it would appear that we are at an impasse, good sir," Caroline replied, then sighed dramatically. "And that's really too bad. I had really become fond of that plaid skirt." Klaus gazed at her, stony faced for a moment and Caroline looked up at him innocently and shrugged.

\m/ . \m/

"Fuck!" Klaus said, as he threw down his guitar pick and scribbled out some writing in his notes. "That's not right!"

"Klaus, if it's really not ready, then I can wait!" Caroline called from the kitchen, pushing the eggs around in the frying pan. "Seriously, this wasn't meant to cause you agony and strife; it was actually supposed to be foreplay..." She paused as she heard him growl angrily again then added, "Yeah, as much as I love our rough sex, not really in the mood for that brand of angst right now."

"No kind of sex will be happening if I don't figure out the fucking chord progression in this fucking verse!" Klaus suddenly shouted from the dining room table and Caroline glanced over at him incredulously after she flipped the eggs.

"Well FINE! If you're going to be a _fucking_ jackass then don't _fucking_ play it!" she shouted right back, then turned back to the stove and muttered to herself, "Asshole..."

She poked at the eggs angrily and she seethed, staring at the pan and debating whether or not to toss them in the trash as the final 'fuck you' to Klaus. You'd think she'd asked him to fucking cure cancer the way he was behaving, and she did not order surly boyfriend with a dash of childish and side of temper tantrum. Just as she was ready to turn and toss the breakfast in the trash, she suddenly felt two arms wrap around her waist and a chin tuck over her shoulder.

"I _am_ an asshole," he whispered sadly, kissing the part of her shoulder that was exposed by the neckline of his black CBGB t-shirt that she was wearing, even though it barely reached her thighs. "And you're an angel for putting up with me and I don't deserve you." Caroline sighed, grateful that he came to his senses sooner rather than later.

A few weeks ago, they'd gotten into a fight and Caroline had left their hotel room, slamming the door behind her, and stormed back to the bus. They didn't talk for nearly a full day, even though it felt like a year, and eventually he came to her and apologized, saying that he didn't care who started the fight and that he just hated fighting with her.

She told him that if it was too tiresome to be with her and fighting with her all the time, he could leave and she wouldn't hold it against him. He'd stared at her for a while before slowly pulling her into his arms and taking her face in his hands, whispering, "I'd rather fight with you than make love to anyone else," and kissing her softly.

Caroline let the spatula rest against the pan, and instead placed her hand over top of the two of his, which were laced together and resting comfortably against her stomach. She let her head fall back slightly and it came to rest against his, which was still on her shoulder.

"I'd rather fight with you than make love to anyone else, Klaus," she repeated his words gently, and she felt his arms hug her tighter. She watched as he took her other hand off of the handle of the frying pan and kissed the inside of her wrist then the inside of her palm. Once he had, she took his hand and held it tight and pulled it so that their entwined hands rested over top of her heart.

They stood silently together for a while until Caroline opened her eyes and realized she'd have a blackened egg soon if she didn't take the pan off the heat, so she raised their entwined hands up to her lips and kissed the back of his before gently letting it go so she could move the pan to the unused, cooler side of the stove. Once she had, she turned in his arms to face him, and wrapped her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist.

"How about this: You take a break, we eat some food, and then you come back to it once you've stepped away for a bit? Maybe you'll get inspiration while you take a break," she said with a bright and hopeful face that warmed his heart and she reached up on her tiptoes to peck his lips sweetly. His arms tightened around her when she did and after she pulled back from kissing him, he pulled her back into his arms for a tight hug.

"How do you do that?" he murmured, his face buried in her hair.

"Do what?"

"_That_," he repeated, and he lifted his head out from her mass of tousled curls and he planted a firm kiss on her lips, "you just make me feel like everything will just work out."

"Because it will," she replied simply with a grin and she pulled his head down to hers for another firm kiss. Once she pulled away, Klaus's head tilted and he leaned his forehead against hers.

"I'll never understand what I did to deserve you, Caroline..."

"Yeah yeah, we'll go out later and do shots and you can toast God for blessing your sorry ass," she said jokingly dismissive and Klaus chuckled as she released his neck and turned to start plating the food. "Now go put silverware and drinks on the table, there's still some orange juice left in the fridge."

"Yes, ma'am," Klaus said with a smirk and she laughed at him and whipped her leg up behind herself to kick his butt with the side of her foot as he passed her. He heard her humming lightly to herself and muttering and he said, "Seems I'm not the only one with a song on the brain," as he passed by her with silverware in one hand and OJ in the other, giving her neck a quick peck in the process.

"Nah, just a tune and some words, but I've just always been horrible with melodies," she said as she placed the empty pan and other cooking tools she used in the sink and grabbed a plate in each hand and followed him to the table. "Kat's always been the better one with melodies, and she wrote most of our songs, I only helped with the lyrics from time to time..."

"Let's hear it, then," Klaus said as they settled down and he poured her some juice before pouring some in his own glass.

"Oh, coming from you? That's rich! You won't even play me what you have, but you expect _me_ to play Show-and-Tell?" she said, raising an eyebrow incredulously at him as she took a bite of food.

"Point taken," he conceded and they ate quietly for a few moments. They were almost through when he asked, "Will you at least tell me what your song's about?" Caroline looked up at him, chewing her food thoughtfully as she gazed at him, but took a sip of juice and looked back down at her plate before she replied casually.

"You."

"Me?" Klaus asked incredulously.

"No, the 'you' sitting over there," Caroline replied sarcastically, looking up only to roll her eyes and gesture with her head at the empty space beside Klaus. He chuckled and she smirked before taking another bite and said, "Of course _you_."

"Well, aren't we a pair?" Klaus murmured, an amused smirk playing on the edges of his lips and Caroline looked up at him curiously.

"What?"

"I find it rather interesting that you start writing words when you think about me, but the notes just won't come to you; whereas your melody won't leave my head, but I just can't seem to find the words..."

"Wait," Caroline interrupted him, "'my melody'? Klaus, are you...are you writing a song about _me_?"

"The melody slowly came to me the day after our first night together, and it hasn't stopped playing in my head since," he admitted. Caroline gazed at him, emotion filling her face and eyes, and he added, "Funny thing is, the more time I spend with you and learn about you, the more I discover in the music. That's why I keep chipping away and writing and rewriting. It's feeling more complete now, but I just can't get the damn words out."

"But you have some?"

"Yes," he nodded, putting his fork down as he finished his food, "the first verse is the only part that came to me right away, but the rest has been a struggle ever since..."

"Well, you mind letting me hear what you have so far? Maybe I can help," Caroline said, setting her own silverware down and resting her chin on her clasped hands with her elbows on the table. Klaus gazed at her a moment before he silently got up and went back to the bedroom and reemerged with his guitar.

"Now remember, it's still rough," he said as he readied himself, "and I'm imagining it very filled out with the other orchestrations and..."

"I know how songwriting works, Klaus," Caroline chuckled and cut him off, "I may not write music, but I am a musician, after all." Klaus smirked and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Okay," he said quietly, glancing at the placement of his fingers for the first chord and he glanced back at his other hand and began plucking strings, his gaze remaining on his instrument as he began to sing.

"_Who's that beauty, what's her name?_

_Now I know I'll never be the same_

_Bright blue eyes, stunning smile_

_Only she could change the game._

_All I need is just one dance_

_Daring her for just one chance_

_Always showing me what I lack_

_I owe you so much, you brought me back_

_Never met a girl quite like her_

_There were others, now there's just her_

_Now I can see what I've been missing and this is new_

_Love, I only have eyes for you..._"

Klaus suddenly stopped and growled angrily at himself.

"It's wrong, it's just wrong, that doesn't work!" he growled as he ran a hand through his hair. He closed his eyes as he brought his hand to his neck and squeezed it in an attempt to relieve some of his tension.

"No, don't stop!" Klaus's eyes opened in time to catch Caroline wiping her eye stealthily, but before he could say anything, she cleared her throat added, "That melody is beautiful, and the first verse is sublime."

"I'm glad you think so," he said with a small smile, feeling some swell of pride knowing that she liked the melody and first verse were what came to him automatically. But he sighed and admitted, "It's just that damn chorus. I don't like it, it's too redundant, but the last line..."

"No, I agree, you can't change the last line," Caroline nodded and she thought for a second before jumping up suddenly and dashing into the bedroom and returning with her journal. She told Klaus it was more than a diary, that it was a 'mish mosh' of things she always had in her brain, and quotes she liked, or things she read; anything that gave her inspiration or was inspirational in general.

She pulled out the chair beside Klaus and pulled her legs up under her to sit Indian-style. She flipped through the pages of the book quickly, obviously looking for something specific. Klaus glanced over and scanned the pages as she flipped through them, and he started noticing a pattern emerging in the section that she was flipping through.

"Are those poems?"

"Mhm," Caroline murmured, her eyes still consumed with finding whatever she was looking for. "I told you, I tend to think of words and so I just write them down. All a song is is a poem with music," she said simply. "But my other problem besides lacking the music is trying to make sense of the placement and order of lyrics...AHA!" she exclaimed and stopped on a page and jabbed it with her finger, "THERE IT IS! Okay, start again from the beginning, from '_Who's_'..."

"Um, okay," Klaus agreed, not sure what Caroline was planning on doing, and he plucked the strings and began the melody again and sang.

"_Who's that beauty, what's her name?_

_Now I know I'll never be the same_

_Bright blue eyes, stunning smile_

_Only she could change the game._

_All I need is just one dance_

_Daring her for just one chance_

_Always showing me what I lack_

_I owe you so much, you brought me back_..."

Klaus took a breath to launch into the chorus, but Caroline sang over top of him.

"_**Want to trust you, though I am scared**_

_**But your eyes sing sweetly to mine**_"

She sang the new lyrics in place of his and he was amazed at how seamlessly they fit into the beats and rhythm of the song. He gazed at her and played as she held her journal, her eyes on her lyrics as she continued to sing.

"_**Promise me, we can make it and your feelings are true**_..."

She turned back to look at him as she sang the last few words and smiled at him and he smiled back at her as he sang.

"_Love, I only have eyes for you..._"

Caroline smiled widely and clapped her hands excitedly and he chuckled and paused in his playing to lean over and kiss her.

"That was perfect!" he said, amazed and shocked and impressed all at the same time, and Caroline nodded emphatically.

"I was thinking through the beats and I remembered that part of the lyrics that I wrote about you and I thought they'd match up...I can't believe I was right!" She smiled and looked down at her notebook again and flipped the page and glanced at the back. "Do you have more of the song written?"

"I have the entire melody, but I only have a few more lyrics, and they're all scattered throughout," Klaus said, handing her his guitar so that he could retrieve his own notebook. When he sat back down, he pushed his dishes aside on the table to place it down for both of them to read, and he took his guitar back and explained.

"The melody is the same, but after the fourth line, it jumps right into the chorus instead of repeating the melody for another four lines..." Caroline leaned over to glance back and forth between his sketchbook and her journal, and she pointed to his lyric and hummed the melody.

"So you don't have these 3 lines that go," she said and then she quickly hummed the tune, "but you have, '_Really all you have to do is ask_'..."

"Precisely."

"Okay," Caroline murmured and she glanced over her lyrics, once more down at his, then back at her page before adding, "give me that little bit of lead in." Klaus glanced at his page and began strumming his guitar and playing the short interlude between the first chorus and the second verse. Soon, Caroline was singing as Klaus played the gentle melody.

"_**Curly hair and a dimpled smile**_

_**Eyes that whisper and beguile**_

_**Wanna see the world at last**_..."

She glanced up at Klaus again as she sang her last few words and he quickly jumped in with her.

"_Really all you have to do is ask_..."

He barely had the last word out before Caroline's hands were wrapped around his neck and her mouth was attacking his excitedly. He chuckled as her squeals of delight were muffled in their kiss, and soon she released him and turned back to place her journal down on the table beside his sketchbook.

"Oh my god, it sounds so beautiful!" she squealed happily, flipping a page in his and glancing at the rest of the measures he'd written and then back at her lyrics in her book.

"Yes, it does," Klaus agreed, sounding both relieved but disbelieving at how well the lyrics and music married together. "It fits together so effortlessly." Caroline stilled as he spoke, a page of each of their notebooks in each hand, and she slowly turned towards him to share her revelation.

"Klaus, that's what you've been struggling with this whole time," she said looking at him, and when he looked back at her, curiosity and confusion equally distributed in his eyes and on his face. "You've been trying to write a monologue, but this song is a _conversation_."

Klaus gazed at her, amazed and stunned by this epiphany, and he knew in an instant that she was absolutely right.

The melody and first verse had come so easily and naturally to him, but he'd struggled more with completing the rest than he ever had writing any other song in his repertoire. And Caroline's miscellaneous lyrics fit in so naturally that it was scary. He remained where he was, gazing at her, seeming both stunned and intrigued. But after a few moments, when he was still speechless, Caroline decided to elaborate.

"Klaus, I know you meant to write this song for me..." Caroline started, turning towards him to face him squarely, and she placed both her hands on his thigh and squeezed it gently, "And I'm so touched, seriously I'm beyond moved, but...needing help isn't a sign of weakness. Asking for help is actually a show of wisdom and strength and not only that but...the desire to move forward. I am so honored that you wrote this beautiful melody for me, and I would be just as honored to write the rest of this song with you." He listened to her speech carefully, and eventually, one of his hands came to rest gently on top of hers and he smiled at her.

"The feeling is mutual, love. I would have to be some kind of a fool to turn down the opportunity to work with such a talented lyricist."

Caroline smiled at him and Klaus gazed back at her, admiring the way the light in her smile spread through her entire face and into her eyes. She brought the hand that was not covered by his up to his face and she leaned in and captured his lips between hers in a short, but passionate kiss.

\m/ . \m/

After a few hours, Klaus and Caroline were spread out in the hotel suite's living room area with the furniture rearranged so that they could spread out sheet music and sit on the floor. They each had a guitar in their laps and their notebooks out between them. Caroline put on a pair of Klaus's boxers soon after she started helping him and snuck down to the bus to steal some of Katherine's blank sheet music pages. Klaus was erasing the music notes on one page while Caroline flipped through her journal and they were nearly finished with all the lyrics to the song.

"No, no, it was what you said that night after the toast, before we went to the club..." Caroline said, flipping through her journal and then she found the quote and read it aloud. "'You're beautiful, you're strong, you're full of light'... I think there could be this great dichotomy between light and dark in the song since people see this kind of yin and yang in us already," she rambled absentmindedly as she scribbled in her journal and on a few of the pages around her, "you know, light and dark, rough and soft, the good girl and the bad boy..."

"'The good girl and the bad boy'?" Klaus said incredulously, even though his expression was saying he was more amused than offended, "I don't think the things you did last night would warrant you a spot in the 'good girl' category..." He moved to the side quickly to dodge a half eaten Oreo being hurled at his face with a smirk and he added, "I don't think throwing things is something a 'good girl' would do either."

"Are you done?!" she huffed, and he laughed at her exasperated expression, then after a moment conceded.

"Yes, I'm done..." he said with a cheeky grin, reaching to grab the throw pillow between them on the couch before she could grab it and hit him with it. She scoffed and picked her pencil back up and kept writing on the one sheet between them.

"So we just had another '_Love, I only have eyes for you_,'" she sang, and then she wrote and added, "What if you sang, '_Her beauty, strength, and all her light_'?"

"Fantastic, that's perfect," Klaus said, jotting it down quickly on the paper.

"Okay, so then it'd be," Caroline started, then she played her guitar as she sang, "'_Love, I only have eyes for you_ / _Her beauty, strength, and all her light..._" she took a breath to speak, but Klaus began playing and joined in with her.

"'_She makes me a better man, through and through_'..." Klaus sang and he paused to jot down the lyrics on his paper and he heard Caroline murmur quietly.

"Do you really think that, Klaus?" she asked, gazing at him softly, and he looked back up at her.

"I know that," he replied simply and turned right back to the page, missing the way she gazed at him appreciatively.

Once the lyric was written down, he continued on his guitar, but he didn't know what words to sing so he hummed where he should've been singing. He eventually stopped though and said, "I don't know, here let's go from the top." He began playing the interlude at the beginning of the section, and he heard her guitar begin to play the complimentary accompanying melody, and soon Caroline's lyric began.

"_**If you don't try to let people in...**_" Caroline sang.

"_And you don't trust them with your heart..._" Klaus sang.

"_**Then you'll just sing a solo and just one point of view...**_**" **Caroline sang belting a little in the beginning, before they sang together, Klaus saying, "Love," and Caroline saying, "Babe."

"_Love, I only have eyes for you __**(Babe, I only have eyes for you)**_"

"_Her beauty, strength, and all her light,_

_She makes me a better man, through and through_**" **Klaus sang, ready to pause and muddle through the next lyric, but Caroline sang strongly and beautifully.

"_**I couldn't shine without his night**_" she sang, filling the empty line of music with beautiful words both contrasting in the imagery of his darkness to her light while rhyming with the word 'light' itself. He smiled at her and she looked up at him and smiled warmly at him as they both played passionately and belted the chorus again.

"_Love, I only have eyes for you __**(Babe, I only have eyes for you)**_"

They played more of the dynamic melody and underscoring and sang the title lyric one final time.

"_Love, I only have eyes for you __**(Babe, I only have eyes for you)**_"

They played the last portion of music and it ended and Caroline smiled.

"I think it's good! How about we play it once through from the top and see how it goes?" she asked and Klaus gave her a small smile. Caroline grinned and turned back to her guitar to start playing the underscoring, her hair falling over her shoulder and face as she looked down at her Flying V, while Klaus plucked the lead guitar notes and began to sing from the beginning.

"_Who's that beauty, what's her name?_

_Now I know I'll never be the same_

_Bright blue eyes, stunning smile_

_Only she could change the game._

_All I need is just one dance_

_Daring her for just one chance_

_Always showing me what I lack_

_I owe you so much, you brought me back_..."

Caroline began singing her portion, gazing into Klaus's eyes as she did.

"_**Want to trust you, though I am scared**_

_**But your eyes sing sweetly to mine**_

"_**Promise me,**_" she began to sing, and her eyes slid shut as she began to belt, "_**we can make it and your-**_" Caroline's gasp of surprise was muffled by Klaus's mouth as his lips suddenly pressed to hers while her eyes were closed. Her eyes opened just to try and figure out what was going on and she saw he had already placed his guitar to the side. His one hand was wrapped around the back of her head while his other hand went to wrap around the neck of her guitar.

"Klaus, what are you-" she gasped as his lips went to her jaw and his hand took her guitar out of her hands and set it to the side.

"Keep going, I didn't tell you to stop," he growled as his lips kissed a trail down her neck and her hands found his shoulders and gripped his lean muscles. He expected her to continue singing...even though his mouth was leaving a scorching path across her skin and was wiping her mind completely blank at the same time; was he out of his ever loving mind?! She gasped and tried to control her moaning and remember where she'd left off in the song.

"_**Promise me,**_" she gasped, as his hands slid down her body and found her hips,"_**we...can make it...and your feelings...are...true...**_" She paused and gasped as she sang, needing both to catch her breath and gather her thoughts to remember what she was singing. Soon, he had her lying back on the floor and he pushed the hem of his shirt up her torso gently as he crooned and sang against her skin just above the waistline of his boxers that she was wearing.

"_Love, I only have eyes for you..._" he sang softly, kissing her skin as he slowly pushed his shirt up her body more, the sheet music beneath them crinkling as she raised her arms and helped him take it off, and he kissed her skin again but paused to repeat, "Sing, love." Caroline took a deep breath and continued with her next verse.

"_**Curly hair and a dimpled smile**_," she sang and she reached forward, feeling the urge to bury her fingers in the soft locks that inspired her lyrics as he kissed up her body. She gasped and barely managed to strangle the words out of her throat as he began teasing her breasts gently with his mouth.

"_**Eyes that whisper and beguile**_," she sang as she writhed beneath him, her movements making the papers beneath them crinkle and added to the symphony of his moans and her gasps and his kisses upon her skin.

"_**Wanna see the world at last**_..." she gasped, her voice moaning the tune rather than singing it since Klaus had gently begun to move his body against hers, with only a thin pair of his boxers that she wore and the jeans he wore separating them.

"_All you really have to do is ask_..." he murmured to her, and she moaned and arched her back to push herself against him.

"Please," she pleaded, gasping and moaning both in pleasure and frustration, her restless movements displacing most of their work. Every crinkle of paper reminded her that he was literally making love to her on their music, and it moved her as much as it turned her on and she had to have him. "I want you and I need you, oh god, I need you so _badly_, Klaus." If her eyes hadn't been shut tight in frustration, she would've seen Klaus grin against her skin as he slowly kissed his way back down her body and sang as he did.

"_Don't know why she loves me at all_," he crooned as she kissed down her body, painstakingly and slowly. His hands slid his boxers down her legs, revealing her to him and he tossed them aside. He slid his hands up under her legs until he hooked them behind her knees and pulled her legs open gently. He kissed down from the top of her knees down the insides of her thighs while he sang, "_Don't know how she breaks down my walls_." Caroline's breathing got deeper and she was lost in the sensation of Klaus's lips and hands against her skin, and she writhed in frustration until she realized he'd paused in his actions since she wasn't singing the next verse.

"_**Babe, I only have eyes for you!**_" Caroline called quickly and Klaus rewarded her by suddenly putting his mouth on her and feasting on her sensitive flesh. She moaned and his movements slowed as a warning and she quickly forced out the next lyrics to ensure that he would keep going.

"_**You make me feel like I'm alive**_

_**Like a whole new person too, you do**_

_**And I could say a million times**_..." she sang quickly, half of her words moans and gasps rather than music as Klaus tortured her and teased her.

He sunk two fingers into her quickly and kissed her legs and sang, "_Love, I only have eyes for you_," as Caroline moaned, every thought she ever had leaving her brain as he pleasured her. He knew she should sing her next lyric in order to earn his ministrations, no matter how distracted she was with pleasure.

However, the smell of her arousal, the smell of the fresh sheet music they'd just broken in, the sight of Caroline naked and writhing on top of the music they had written together was all too much for even Klaus, and he knew he was through playing games. He suddenly pulled Caroline's hips up off the ground and continued his sweet torture on her with his tongue.

Caroline gasped in both surprise and delight as Klaus continued to ravish her with his mouth and since she couldn't reach his curly hair or body with the angle he held her, her hands instead flailed around, desperately clutching at the sheet music that was in reach. Her hands crumpled some papers within her fists and she gasped and called his name as she let her orgasm wash over her. He kissed her trembling legs softly and lowered her back to the floor gently and massaged them soothingly as he kissed back up her body.

The moment she was able to, Caroline buried her fingers in his locks and held him to her as she kissed him fiercely. He responded by matching her fervor in kind while he pulled her up so that he was on his knees and she was straddling him comfortably while she kissed him.

"Make love to me like your song, Klaus," Caroline suddenly gasped against his mouth and Klaus wrapped his arms around her to stand up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he slowly moved and stepped as gingerly as he could on the sheet music scattered around them and brought her to their bedroom.

He placed her down carefully so that she sat on the edge of the bed and he slowly broke his lips from hers and raised up to stand again. He gazed down at her and she at him silently as he ran the back of his knuckles and thumb across the planes of her face as her hands tenderly traced the definition in his torso. It took Caroline a moment, but then she found herself tearing up as she realized: he was humming their song. She smiled up at him through the tears gathering in her eyes and he suddenly held his face in her palm and swiped his thumb across her lips.

"Caroline, I..." He trailed off as he gazed down at her, and she heard him sigh exasperatedly. She knew it wasn't about her, though; he was frustrated with himself, and after what he had just done in the living room, she had no idea why. But then she saw it there in his eyes; that same look in his eyes as he'd played his song for her for the first time.

She saw love. Honest, adoring, melodious, passionate, genuine love.

Caroline swore if she died in that moment, she'd die the happiest death and not have a single regret. Before her stood a man that was known by so many as one of the callous and self-serving egotistical rockstars in the industry, and she herself had even thought that he was just a playboy that was not even worth trying to save. But just by being around each other, she not only learned that they had so much in common, but he was not what he seemed at all. Then again, neither was she, and he told her he had had his own misconceptions about her before they met.

Now they had been touring for months and she and her band had been promoted to headlining with him and his band. Even more than that, he hadn't left her side since he shown up in her trailer after what she'd been so sure was going to be nothing but a one night stand. He told her he was attracted to her but felt something more than attraction for her as well, and he'd used every second of their time together proving it to her.

And with him standing before her and trying to tell her that he loved her, she knew that it was not only his big gesture to her, but a moment of vulnerability in order to open up to her. He had begun to open up to her about his sordid past and she had done the same in kind to prove to him that she appreciated his honesty.

Not to mention his song; Caroline's heart fluttered just thinking about the soul-bearing and beautifully haunting melody of the song he'd been inspired to write because of his love for her. His love for her was in every stanza, every note, every lyric, every word. Even still, his love for her was in his willingness to write the song _with _her, not just _for _her. He never ever let anyone hear his work before it was finished, but he played his song for her when all he had was the melody, a verse, and a few lyrics.

He let himself be vulnerable with her, doing what he had never done comfortably with anyone before, and shared a personal bit of himself that he felt was incomplete and allowed her to help him. But Caroline knew that he'd let himself be vulnerable with her in more ways than one. He had taken a leap of faith, he'd taken a chance not knowing if she would too, and that showed her so much courage than any random show of strength or leadership.

They had both grown so much, and she wasn't about to let this precious moment slip away.

She sighed happily, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his stomach as she collected herself and she felt him lean down and kiss the top and back of her head and she smiled. She slowly leaned back up to look at him and she gazed at him a good long while in comfortable silence. She leaned forward to press open mouthed kisses to his body as she slowly stood, never tearing her eyes from his the entire time. Once she was standing before him, she leaned forward and kissed him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and neck as she embraced him, and his arms wrapped around her shoulders pulling her up closer to him. After she felt like she'd thoroughly kissed him, she pulled away and gazed up into his eyes between her eyelashes.

"I know," she whispered, her face an inch from his and she gently traced the sides of his face with her fingertips and added, "me too." Her eyes flitted back and forth between his eyes and lips, just as his were, and soon he was leaning in and capturing her lips again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and his were around her waist as she pulled him back to the bed with her. He settled comfortably on top of her, but she soon rolled them so that she was resting against his body. She broke her mouth away from his to trail kisses down his jaw and she scattered kisses all around his face and neck.

He realized in that moment that her scattered kisses weren't random; she was kissing each of his freckles and she was taking her sweet time doing it too. He couldn't help but hold her hands tightly in his as she kissed his skin, feeling more and more overcome with emotion as he became aware of her doting act. He sighed her name and she smiled against his skin, hearing her name falling from his lips as softly as snow. Her goal began that moment to make him say her name in all manner of ways; and she knew the perfect way to start.

She pulled his jeans down his legs, and her commando rockstar didn't disappoint her. She couldn't help but look back into his eyes with a look of appreciation mixed with pride and lust, seeing that he was just as, if not more, aroused than her. She slowly and lightly dragged her fingernails up his legs and she watched his manhood twitch as she teased his nerves, grinning when she heard him moan.

She gently and lightly trailed her fingertips up his length and he grunted as he bit back the loud groan that threatened to escape his throat. She smiled as she slowly wrapped her hand around him began to pump up and down, tantalizingly and agonizingly slow. His hips rose slightly to meet her hand and she watched them move in tandem with her hand, grinning when he began clenching the sheets in his fists.

Her hand paused and he glanced down and groaned her name as he watched her lean down and lick her tongue up his entire length from his base to the tip, her eyes never leaving his the entire time. His eyes became half-lidded, even though he tried his hardest not to close them. When she suddenly blew a breath of air on him, the cold air hitting the wet trail she'd left on his length, he jerked and writhed in their messy, unmade sheets. Before her name even left his lips, she took him entirely in her mouth and his head fell back and he moaned.

She took as much as she could, and her hand massaged anything she couldn't, and she alternated between taking him all and teasing him. Sometimes she'd take him all at once, but other times she'd just take the tip of him in her mouth, her lips grazing his tender skin lightly; and other times she'd just tease him, only the tip of her tongue tracing along his length and other erogenous zones while she worked him with her hand. After a while she felt his thighs tense and his hands held her face and pulled her off of him, and she gazed up at him and smiled. He was as ready to be in her as she was, she couldn't deny either of them what they wanted any longer.

Happy that she was on the pill and didn't have to go looking for a condom, Caroline crawled up Klaus's body and her lips met his again and greeted each other like old lovers. She felt his one hand on her hip and the other positioning his length between them and when she felt the tip of him at her entrance, she moved her hips down as she held his face in her hands. Her mouth broke away from his as she moaned in delight, feeling him within her, filling her and stretching her.

She knew she could make love to Klaus 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and every time would be like their first time. She would always gasp and cry out as he filled her and stretched her with his length and girth; yet somehow, they still fit together perfectly. Caroline had been more than happy to go on the pill so that she could feel him with absolutely nothing keeping them apart; but she could never be close enough to Klaus. Being with him, whether they were making love or performing on stage together, just felt so right.

She pushed herself up so that she was sitting and moved herself up and down his length, feeling already close to the precipice. She felt Klaus's hands hold her waist and he met her downward motion with his upward thrusts, but it wasn't fast enough for Caroline. She could feel herself unraveling and she was too close to go that slow. She planted her hands on his chest and pushed him down roughly and forced him down as she had her way with him.

She whimpered as she felt her inner walls start to flutter and her toes started to curl. She gripped the skin of his chest tightly between her fingers, and when her hands flew to her breasts, she saw the red marks she'd left on his torso. He didn't seem to mind, however, since his hands quickly took the place of hers and teased her soft mounds and switched from pinching her nipples to rolling his thumbs over and around them when her hands rooted themselves in her long blonde locks. The roughness of his hands tweaking her breasts sent pleasure shooting through her body and she cried out, calling his name, as she clenched down on him and her whole body shook.

She fell forward, barely bracing herself with her hands on his chest, and his hands slid up her back and along her skin, tracing her curves and his fingertips drawing the length of her spine. She murmured contentedly and she felt his lips in her hair and on her forehead and she brought her head up to kiss him lovingly. His tongue explored every nook and cranny of her mouth slowly and she held his face and eventually pulled back to study it. He gazed up at her warmly, and her expression mirrored his before she smiled and giggled a little. He knew it and she saw it all over his face; she'd been insatiable and taken what she wanted and he'd just been along for the ride.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and his hand lingered, rubbing the side of her face gently, back and forth over her cheekbone. She almost spoke to laugh and tell him that if she could, she'd never leave their bed, but then she heard very faintly; he was humming.

He was humming the song, _their song_.

She blinked and did her best not to tear up, and she leaned down again to capture his lips again and his hands and arms held her close to him, not letting her move more than an inch away from him. He began to speak as he slowly began moving his hips again, and instantly Caroline slowly moved hers with him.

"I hear it everytime you laugh," he said, knowing full well that she knew he was talking about their song. "Everytime I look at you; when you smile, when your face scrunches up when you're really focused on something...when you sigh and murmur in your sleep, or when I'm inside you..." Caroline gasped, his tender and passionate words caressing her as he moved within her, and his lips danced along her face leaving kisses in their wake. He traced her lips with his soft, sweet kisses and he continued, his steady rhythm within her never faltering.

"Everytime I try to tell you how I feel, how I can't imagine my world without you anymore, my brain shuts down and I forget every word I've ever learnt...but I hear your song. Our song and it fills me up and I know...I'm home. That you're my eternity and I could spend the rest of forever making music with you. It's what our song tells me, and I know even if I had the words, I wouldn't need them. Our song speaks for me when I can't, Caroline..."

She felt his thumbs sliding across her cheeks, and that was the only reason she realized she was crying. She gazed down at him and wiped his cheeks with her own thumbs, wiping her tears that had fallen on his face, but he gently took her hand and pressed a kiss to each of her fingertips. Once he had, she held his face in her hands and kissed him urgently and amorously, feeling her climax building once again.

"Come with me, Klaus," she gasped, her voice barely a whisper as she tried to kiss him again, but her mouth hovered less than an inch from his as the waves of pleasure started to build more and more. His own breathing became strained but he managed to respond to her, and his reply took her breath away.

"I'll follow wherever you lead, love," he murmured, leaning his head up just enough to kiss the corner of her lips and along her cheek, "whatever you do, Caroline, I'll always be right behind you." A strangled cry escaped her throat and she locked her hands and arms around his head as her walls clenched around him, her orgasm coaxing his own from his body, and their shuddering gasps mingled together in a soft, erotic duet.

They held each other for the longest time as they were before they separated, and Caroline turned so her back was facing him and pulled his arm around her waist. Klaus pulled her into him, knowing she loved nothing more than cuddling into him and spooning, and he gently brushed her hair to the side so that he could kiss the tattoo on her right shoulder blade. He traced it lightly with his nose before kissing it again and she smiled at the feeling and murmured.

"I knew that was why you shared the song with me," she said.

"'Where words fail,'" Klaus said, reading her tattoo, "'music speaks.'"

"And you knew I'd listen," she murmured, taking his hand in hers and squeezing it.

"Who's handwriting is it?" Klaus asked gently, not sure if she would give him an answer. There was a small beat of silence before she replied.

"My dad's. He sent me a letter right before I graduated high school after I told him and my mom that I wanted to be a musician and left Mystic Falls. He was found behind his desk stabbed to death soon after I got it. 'I always knew you were special, my sweet Caroline. You've had music in you since the day you were born and it's been the one thing that has never changed over the years, besides my love for you. Follow your heart, and if you ever lose your way, remember: where words fail, music speaks. Listen and you'll always find your way.'" Klaus listened to her confession, hearing it slowly devolve into soft crying, and he kissed the tattoo again before trailing kisses up her shoulder and neck and tucking his chin over her shoulder.

"Sounds like a wise man," he murmured softly, "I wish I could've met him to thank him for bringing you into the world...and for coming out after rather than before..." he added in the hopes of making her laugh, which she did and he was glad he had succeeded.

"Oh my god, my dad would've had so much fun trying to break you, the Big Bad Wolf of Rock and Roll with his teeth in his little girl," Caroline laughed.

"It's not my fault he didn't make you more familiar with Little Red Riding Hood," he growled playfully, before nipping at her neck.

"Oh he did, but I'm sure he'd be rolling in his grave if he knew I had special red lingerie for the Big Bad Wolf," she giggled, turning to face him and catching his bottom lip between her teeth and biting it gently before kissing him.

"Of course Red's not as innocent as she seems," Klaus chuckled as she kissed the scruff on his chin and she looked back up at him.

"My, what big eyes you have!" she said, her voice unusually high and he grinned devilishly before rolling her and pinning her arms above her head.

"All the better to see you with, love," he growled, his head moving down quickly and he latched onto her neck and she murmured contentedly until he heard her gasp.

"Oh! And that's not the only thing that's big..." she said, wriggling underneath him and pressing her body into his more. "Dear oh dear, what _would_ Grandma Forbes think?"

"Let her think what she wants," Klaus muttered, his mouth finding its way back to hers, but breaking away to say, "I'll tell you what I think: I think I'm going to ravish you again, and I think we may need to talk about that special red lingerie you have, Red."

"I think that is definitely something I could consider, Mr. Wolf," she grinned, leaning up and capturing his lips again, kissing him fiercely enough to warrant the wolf title herself and she surprised him by rolling them over so that she was straddling him. Her victory was short lived though as he grinned and rolled them again, and the two battled for control as they revved up for round two.

* * *

\m/ . \m/

_**fin**_

\m/ . \m/

* * *

**Author's Note:** HELLO! I'm sorry! I've been hoarding this literally, forever, and it's been waiting in my Google Docs because my plan was to have friends record themselves singing the song so you all could hear it, but I'll do that eventually! If you're curious about the song, the melody is "(You Want To) Make a Memory" by Bon Jovi. I tried to match my lyrics to the syllables in each lyric as closely as I could, and that's why I wanted an audio clip for you all to hear so you would know what it sounds like in my head ;) But I'll post that eventually...hopefully!

Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did! :) **xo Becky**


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